Once Upon a Time
by Cedfia123
Summary: On the eve of her 20th birthday Sofia decides it's time for her final trip to the Secret Library. But she soon realizes the end of her story adventures is really the beginning of the rest of her life. Can Sofia finish the book, convince Cedric to accept their fate, and defeat the forces of evil? Or will Cedric's fears and insecurities destroy them and everyone else? (Cedfia)
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: So, I've been working on this story for a while, but hadn't posted any of it because I couldn't help thinking it was silly or didn't really work. But even so I couldn't stop writing it.**

 **It was born of the idea that Cedric is his own biggest obstacle and worst enemy. And I started to wonder how that would play out in his relationship to a grown up Sofia.**

 **I also took some liberties with cannon when it comes to the magic library and its relationship to the Amulet, linking them more directly instead of going along with the idea that Tilly chose Sofia.**

 **Disclaimer: Sofia is 20, Cedric is 38 and I don't own them or anyone else. I'm just going to bend Cedric till he breaks and then put him in the middle of a cosmic fight between good and evil- he's not going to like me very much.**

 **Prologue**

.o~O*O~o.

 **Sofia**

Sofia sat in the secret library awaiting her next adventure.

She always felt excitement before the chosen book would float down to her, but today she felt a kind of bittersweet sadness as well.

She felt that way because this would be her final book.

Tomorrow was her twentieth birthday.

After twelve years Sofia knew it was time to take the Amulet of Avalor off.

It was time to put it back on its stand in the jewel room and let it wait for the next Princess worthy of wearing it. It was time now for her, as it had been for Tilly before her, to become an adult in spirit as well as age.

As the book floated to her, Sofia felt awed. It was the most beautiful book she'd ever seen, brown leather with a silver tiara embossed on it, and in the middle sat a large purple jewel that reminded her very much of her amulet.

The book finally came to rest in her lap and Sofia read the title:

The Sorcerer and the Princess Apprentice.

Opening it she read the prologue.

 _Dear reader,_

 _This is the story of a perfect soul in which was encapsulated both good and evil. In this being these opposing forces existed in perfect harmony, their purpose to bring balance to the world and through balance peace._

 _But though goodness and evil existed within this soul perfectly, throughout the world they did not. And those bent to malevolence, those who counted themselves enemies to peace, plotted to destroy this soul so they might do as they pleased and rape the world with their evil._

 _Setting upon this soul they found they could not destroy it, for to great were its powers. So they chose instead to tear it asunder. They broke it down the middle, separating it into its halves._

 _Evil and Good_

 _Hatred and Love_

 _Greed and Generosity_

 _Vengeance and Justice_

 _And from the halves was formed a man bent to darkness and a woman bathed in light._

 _Flinging the two halves to separate ends of the world those enemies hoped they had wounded the soul enough it could no longer interfere in their plans._

 _For eons the two halves, the man and the woman, attempted to reunite, driven by a desire so deep it was more instinct than will. Many times they came close, and in doing so thwarted their enemies. But unjoined they could only delay the enemies of peace from their plans, not stop them._

 _And so these enemies attempted another kind of division. They separated the man and the woman not through space, but through time. They kept the woman from being born for as long as they could, until the man was many years older than his other half._

 _Believing they had finally divided them for good, they placed the man and the woman close to each other, so they might laugh as they watched them forever separated by the gulf of age._

 _But it is fate that this soul, this man of darkness and this woman of light, should be together. That they should save the world from itself. And so the forces of fate rallied twice to bring the soul back together. Once to cause a powerful king to take a peasant for a wife, bringing the man and the woman face to face, and once more to stir an insatiable love within their hearts. A love that would give them the courage to cast aside the differences that stood between them._

 _But know ye reader, that not all is set in stone. For if the light and the dark, the good and the evil, the man and the woman cannot cross the chasm which does not truly exist and reunite, than all will be lost and no happy ending will ever exist for them, or for you._

Sofia read until she came to the moment when the pages became blank.

It was no surprise to her when, for the first time, she wasn't pulled into the book, because she knew without doubt she was already inside it.

 **Chapter One**

.o~O*O~o.

 **Sofia**

"I wish to be big again." Sofia said, emerging from the small hole in her wall.

The amulet glowed for a moment and suddenly she was her normal size once more.

Clutching the book to her chest Sofia kicked off her mud spattered shoes and ran from her room, heedless that she was still in the peasant dress she'd taken to wearing for her story saving adventures.

Dark purple in color, it had no flounce to it, and fell only to her knees. On top the neck of the dress scooped slightly lower than her Princess attire, allowing her amulet to rest on skin rather than fabric, and instead of a corset underneath it had only an outer girdle made of green velvet that cinched under her breasts.

She'd left her tiara behind and only a green headband held her hair back.

Dressed like this she managed to make it passed a good deal of people she saw every day without being looked at twice, until she collided headlong with her father.

"Ohmph," was all that came out of her mouth as she was sent flying backwards from the force of their impact. Had he not caught her Sofia would no doubt have landed on her bottom, her skirt above her head.

"Sofia, what has you in such a hurry? And…what are you wearing?" He asked, steadying her.

"Oh Dad, I'm sorry, I…I just have to see Mr. Cedric. It's kind of a magical emergency."

"Well, can it wait five minutes?" He asked her, still looking at her dress and her bare feet disapprovingly.

"Um…I think so." She answered clutching the book ever tighter.

"Good, come with me."

Sofia followed her father to his personal study.

Rolland went behind his desk and produced a letter. He handed it over to her and Sofia shifted the book so she could open it.

The paper was extremely expensive and had an official seal she didn't recognize.

Sofia scanned the contents and looked up at her father incredulously.

"Before you say no hear me out." Her father said, holding up both hands in a bid to quell her protests before they began. "You and I both know I've turned away a good many men who wanted to marry you. And I've been happy to do it. I know you're not like Amber and you don't intend to marry simply so you can be Queen of some place or another. But this offer from Eldrid is… it's a big deal.

They're a very powerful kingdom to the north, and one that doesn't often associate with outsiders. That Prince Aleric would write me personally asking for permission to meet you is incredible. So as a Princess of Enchancia I'm asking you to consider him. An alliance with such a kingdom would bring unimaginable benefits."

Sofia wanted to say no. She wanted to shove the book in her father's face and tell him why, but she wasn't ready to do that. Not until she talked to the other person for whom this book would be a personal matter.

"Just meet him? No other expectations?" Sofia asked, handing her father back the letter as though it burned her hand.

"Just meet him." Her father held up three fingers of his right hand. "King's honor."

"All right." She turned then and went to the door. "Sorry dad, I really have to go now."

With that Sofia began running again.

This time she wasn't stopped, and in a matter of minutes she was up the slippery stone steps and in front of Cedric's door.

The urge to simply rush in was almost overwhelming, but after years of working with magic she knew you never just barged in on someone when you had no idea what the person might be handling.

Banging her hand down on the door, she heard an angry curse from the other end and realized she'd knocked so loudly she'd managed to startle him anyway.

"Merlin's Mushroom!" He yelled. "Come in already, you're going to anyway!"

Most people would probably have fled back down the stairs given the tone of Cedric's voice, but Sofia had long ago been exempted from his dislike of other people. Even though he wasn't happy now, she knew when he saw her she would be welcome.

Pushing the heavy oak, she stood in the doorway to see her loud knock had caused him to spill a beaker all over his worktable. Cedric was mopping up the contents with a cloth, his back to her.

Sofia took in the long, leanness of him and her pulse quickened as it always did.

No matter how many handsome, strapping princes she was introduced to or how many muscle bound knights, she couldn't find one that held a candle to the dark mystery of her sorcerer. She found Cedric captivating inside and out.

His age added to the wisdom she admired so much. His tall, lean form made her body yearn. And his guarded heart, which he only seemed to open to her, made her feel special. It made her feel wanted and needed, as though she were the guardian of something fragile and beautiful.

She knew her parents chalked it up to a school girl crush and her sister and brother chalked it up to her eccentricities. Since in public they tried to remain in the roles they'd occupied since her girlhood, that of an adoring child and the adult who tolerated her because he had to, she understood why they're continued friendship made very little sense to others.

But they didn't know him the way she did, and in private their relationship had become very different.

In private he softened. He talked openly, he even smiled sometimes. He shared his knowledge with her freely and his friendship with her ungrudgingly. Though he'd never declared it outright, Sofia knew Cedric cared for her more than he cared for anyone else.

Besides his mother, she was the only person he took an interest in.

The change had happened when she was ten.

She'd come to him, as she often did, with sorcery homework.

She didn't really need help with her homework anymore, but it was an excuse come up to his tower.

Cedric had looked at her assignment and made one of his usual exasperated exclamations, before flinging the paper on his desk with disgust.

"Sofia, this is child's play. It's beneath you." He declared.

She thought he was mad at her. That he'd seen through her, and knew she'd been feigning ineptness to be near him.

"I have come to find our current arrangement, of cleaning in exchange for homework help, unsuitable."

Sofia had begun to shake her head, racking her brain for some way to keep him from banishing her from his tower for good. Her heart would break if he told her he didn't want her to come around anymore. Even at ten she'd needed him in ways she hadn't quite understood.

He held up his hand to silence any protest she might have been about to make.

"We both know you can do this dribble with your eyes closed, which is more than I can say for your peers at school and many of the students at Hexly Hall as well. You have more talent than a great many people I know, but that talent will go to waste if you don't start to take it seriously.

So I will not help you with this insulting garbage. But I will ask you to become my apprentice in the serious sense."

Sofia's eyes had grown as big as saucers, elation beginning to bloom in her heart.

"What would I do?" She asked, her voice barely above a whisper.

"You would _not_ clean my tower like some tiny Cinderella, and I would _not_ help you with homework like some by the hour tutor. You would need to devote a great deal of your time to study. Four hours a day during the school year, and at least six when on vacation. You would study the materials I give you, learn the language of magic, how to make potions, and not just cast but write spells, among _many_ other things.

And if you excelled in your studies and I believed you were capable, you would go before the Masters at the end of your apprenticeship. If judged worthy they would bestow the title of Master Sorcerer on you. You'd be a real sorceress.

Is this something you have interest in?"

And that had been the beginning of nearly a decade of real apprenticeship under her sorcerer.

In that time so much had changed between them.

The feelings that started out as admiration and childish adoration had grown and matured along with her.

Spending hours together every day had cemented their friendship before her first month as an apprentice was over. That friendship had deepened over the years to the point where Sofia knew they were each other's best friends.

When Sofia was fourteen she'd realized her feelings for Cedric had changed again. He was still her best friend, but she also knew most people didn't dream of kissing their best friend. Nor did they coerce them into dancing every chance they got, just to feel that best friend's arms around them.

As her teenage years had marched on and her siblings and friends had started having relationships, Sofia began to feel oddly removed from them and the rather incestuous air that permeated Royal Prep. People who'd been friends and peers only a few years before began dating each other, breaking up, and dating other friends in a round robin of romances which she had no interest in.

Some of the princes she still counted as friends had tried to woo her, but to no avail.

Sofia didn't want any of them, not even for a little while.

But turning down boy after boy had begun to make her feel as though perhaps there was something wrong with her. If everyone was dating everyone, how could she have already chosen just one person?

Which was why she'd let Desmond kiss her at the school's spring formal the year she was sixteen. Desmond was handsome, kind, and Sofia counted him among her closest friends at school.

Not only had she felt nothing during the kiss. But afterwards she'd been racked by guilt. She'd felt guilt for hurting Desmond's feelings, since he obviously cared for her more than she'd realized, and thought the kiss meant she reciprocated his feelings.

And guilt for being unfaithful to Cedric.

Which had plunged her into a chasm of even greater misery, since Cedric had never, even for a second, give her cause to hope he saw her as more than a friend. She remembered crying into her pillow as she told herself she was a silly idiot. How could a brilliant, talented man almost two decades her senior look at her as anything more than a naïve girl?

To her the differences between them would be nothing if he loved her.

But from his side they must have been so great they precluded him ever looking at her as more than his friend. His little dearest, as he sometimes called her.

She had counted it as hopeless for many years.

But after she'd passed her judgment before the Masters, she'd thought perhaps he might _finally_ come to see her as an adult, as a woman. And she'd let herself hope again…briefly.

But other than being proud of her, and joking she'd probably be challenging his authority left and right now she was a full-fledged Sorceress, he hadn't given her any indication he saw her differently.

Knowing he still wanted her to come to his tower and help him with his work had forced her to make a decision.

She could have severed their relationship then using the end of her Apprenticeship as a reason. But the thought of not seeing him every day broke her in a way she couldn't even put into words.

So she determined to simply accept what he would offer her, his friendship, his knowledge, and his chaste love, and to let go of the rest.

Until today.


	2. Chapter 2

.o~O*O~o.

 **Chapter Two**

 **Cedric**

.o~O*O~o.

Cedric was trying his hardest to control his temper.

An hour he'd been working on combining those ingredients. They had to be properly measured out, mixed in a specific order, and then left to ferment before they could be added to the potion he was making for the castle infirmary.

He had wanted it to be ready when Sofia came later so they could get straight to work.

Ever since she'd passed her judgment King Rolland had all put tripled his workload. It was more than a single person could ever dream of accomplishing. And it essentially meant Sofia had become his unofficial partner as Royal Sorcerer.

Some people in his position might have bristled at that. But Cedric was never one to look a gift horse in the mouth.

Sofia would be twenty tomorrow.

Most Princesses never made it even close to her age without being married off.

There had been so many times in the past decade when he'd looked at his friend and his heart had constricted knowing the clock was already counting down to the end of their time together.

Yet time continued to march forward and somehow Sofia had managed to evade the fate most of her peers, including her elder sister, had succumbed to.

He wasn't sure why she hadn't found a young man to fall in love with yet. And could only surmise young men must have become far stupider since he was her age.

But the fact remained, she was twenty and by some miracle he'd been allowed to continue bathing in the warm light of her extraordinary goodness. So if King Rolland wanted to give him a reason to need Sofia by his side day in and day out, Cedric would take it and thank the man.

Finally having cleaned up the mess, he turned around, preparing to give the interloper who'd ruined his morning's work an earful. Only to end up stunned and uncaring as the beaker he'd been holding slipped from suddenly nerveless fingers to shatter at his feet.

"Oh!" She cried out, running over to him and kneeling down to begin gathering the pieces of broken glass.

Sofia was talking, saying things, he was sure of it, but none of it seemed to make it to his ears.

And it only became worse when his eyes followed her to the floor at his feet. Finding the dress she wore not only left half her legs bare but, from this angle, most of her chest too!

"Cedric, are you alright?" Sofia asked, the tone of her voice implying she'd said it more than once.

"What?" His own voice was dazed, and he knew he must be beet red. But all he could really care about was putting distance between them.

Sofia stood up then. One graceful movement that put her so close to him he could feel the heat emanating from her body.

As she tipped up on her toes, leaning forward, he could feel the tips of her breasts brush against his chest.

How could her skin burn his like that through so many layers of fabric?

When her hand touched his forehead he jumped back from her as though she _had_ burned him.

Sofia looked even more concerned.

"Cedric please answer me? Are you okay? You're worrying me!"

"I…I… yes, I'm fine." He stammered, the distance helping him to recover if only slightly.

"Okay," she replied, taking a spare wand from the case on the wall and saying the words that would reconstitute the beaker.

Sofia held it out to him.

He took it with a shaking hand, trying not to let their fingers touch.

Since Sofia had turned fifteen he'd discouraged physical contact as much as possible.

Cedric knew she'd been upset at first, when he'd told her there could be no more hugs, but he had also been honest with her. It was unseemly for them to be so casual with each other. It didn't mean he wasn't her friend or that he didn't care for her, but that was the way it had to be.

He didn't tell her how much he'd hated losing those hugs.

That they'd meant the world to him.

That, silly as it sounded, each time she touched him he felt as though a part of his soul was being mended.

But he had to remember the lines that were clearly drawn between them, both the societal ones and the moral ones. It wasn't just that she was a Princess and he was a servant. It was more that he was eighteen years older than her. And a full grown man had no business enjoying the hugs of a teenage girl.

She was the most important person in his life, his best and only friend.

It wasn't her fault he was also a very bad person.

He'd done things that were wrong and plotted things that were worse. But when it came to Sofia he wouldn't be responsible for hurting her in any way.

Somehow it hadn't really helped the emotional aspect though. The farther apart he insisted they be physically, the closer to him she seemed to be in a metaphysical sense. It was as though her spirit, her beautiful goodness and boundless joy were somehow with him, enveloping him, even when she wasn't there.

It had changed him.

He'd become a better person because of her love and care. Though he was often loathe to admit it aloud.

But now he looked at her and all his strict lines and reasonable reasons seemed like nothing more than chains binding him.

"What are you doing here?" He asked, trying to concentrate on something, anything but how close she still was, or how he towered over her with her pretty feet bare like that, or how much of her body that dress revealed. "I wasn't expecting you for another few hours."

Sofia bent back down to the floor and picked up the book she'd been clutching when she walked in.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you, but I have something I need to show you."

She held out her arms and he could see the book clearly now.

"Is this a fairy tale? I'm a little old for this type of reading material Dearest. I had thought you were too." He laughed a little trying to bring himself back to equilibrium.

"I thought I was about to be."

Sofia had answered him, yet Cedric got the distinct impression her statement had actually been directed more to herself.

Taking the book from her he skimmed the first few pages.

"Where did you get this?" He asked, feeling an odd pressure coalescing inside him.

"I haven't been completely honest with you about my amulet." She answered, surprising him.

Cedric looked up at her, but only managed a crooked eyebrow. They knew each other well enough though, she understood what he was trying to communicate.

"Um…well you know it gave me the power to talk to animals, and to become small, and that it sends me Princesses when I'm in trouble."

"There's more?" His voice was astonished as he looked at the jewel around her neck.

"It also chose me. The amulet chooses a princess to wear it and when the amulet deems her ready she becomes the story keeper."

"Sofia you're not making a great deal of sense."

She was against him again, and he couldn't breathe. It took him a full moment to realize she was turning pages in the book. Looking down he saw the last half of the book was comprised of empty pages.

"Below the castle, in a door only accessible to someone wearing the amulet, is the entrance to a secret library. It's an enchanted library and all the books there are unfinished. Something or someone has prevented them from being finished. They're waiting for the story keeper to help them write their endings. My Aunt Tilly wore the amulet before me and she was the story keeper before me.

When she grew up she put the amulet back and that's why it was waiting for me all those years later when I came to the castle.

I've been planning for a while to take the amulet off. I was going to put it back in the jewel room tomorrow morning.

Today was going to be my last adventure. The last book I was going to help finish. I don't choose the books, the library or maybe the amulet does. I don't know if they've always just been waiting for me to be old enough for this story, or if they knew this was my last book, but this morning when I visited the library this is what floated down to me.

Cedric I need you to read it."

Not knowing what to say to this revelation, Cedric turned back to the second page.

 _Once upon a time there lived a boy. He possessed a great magical talent, but lived in the shadow of a cold and disapproving father…._

Cedric read on.

Though the boy was given no name, his life was all too familiar.

His attempts to please his father by following in his footsteps as Royal Sorcerer. His crippling insecurities which caused him to flounder despite knowledge and talent. His self-imposed distance from other people, when endless rejection and ridicule made him realize he would find neither friendship nor acceptance anywhere.

Cedric read on as the book detailed how his heart had been turned cold, his soul black. How he'd dreamed of revenge. How he'd wanted and tried to usurp the throne, to prove his talent and worth.

 _But when the Sorcerer was on the brink of the abyss, ready to fall into complete darkness and become a creature of utter evil, she came to him._

Suddenly the story had another main character, the daughter of a peasant who married a king, an unexpected princess.

 _Though he felt nothing the moment they met, the strings of fate were already at work, binding them back together. Joining what had been torn asunder. And though the Sorcerer knew it not, the Princess began to heal his heart and rekindle his soul._

Cedric felt his hands begin to tremble as he turned the page.

It was all there, his bitter dislike of the annoying new addition to the castle, his recognition of the 'magical bauble' which adorned her throat. How he'd attempted over and over again to steal it from her so he could depose her father.

Poseidon's pumpkins, Sofia had read this!

She knew everything now. Every black deed he'd committed in those early days, even as he'd pretended to be her friend.

He was unable to read anymore for a long minute, until he felt her hand come down over his.

"It's alright. Keep reading." Her eyes were wide and liquid blue. They bathed him in warmth and forgiveness.

 _The Sorcerer eventually gained possession of the magical bauble by switching it with a false one, unbeknownst to the princess._

 _But to no avail._

 _As he tried to make its powers bend to him, the Princess realized something had happened to her precious jewel. Believing only goodness lay in the heart of her Sorcerer she begged him to help her._

 _The moment was a test for this man who had given himself almost completely to darkness._

 _In the end, he returned to the princess what was hers._

 _For he had come to realize if he were to make the object yield to him, he would bring nothing but pain to the only person who had ever shown him kindness and friendship. And so he tricked the Princess into closing her eyes that he might replace the true jewel without her knowing._

 _And from that day forward he abandoned his malevolent schemes and devoted himself entirely to her. To teaching her the mysteries of magic, for Princesses have need to know how to protect themselves._

 _And to her happiness, for she had become his._

 _The years passed as they spent their days together, and the Princess began to grow._

 _Until one day she had become a woman._

 _A woman of such exquisite beauty, Princes and Kings of all nations attempted to win her hand._

 _But her heart would not open to any of them, for it already belonged to another._

 _Over their long years together she had fallen in love with her dark sorcerer, and her heart belonged to him utterly._

 _As did his to her…._

And then nothing.


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Remember when I said Cedric was his own biggest obstacle…um yeah.**

.o~O*O~o.

 **Chapter Three**

 **Sofia**

.o~O*O~o.

Sofia watched as Cedric read and the color slowly drained from his face.

When he looked up from the now blank pages, he was ashen and trembling.

They stood in the center of his workshop, unmoving for long minutes. Cedric holding the book between them, as she clasped his hands trying to comfort him, to give him the strength to deal with all the revelations which had been laid bare by it.

"You've been turning princes and _kings_ down because of me?"

Sofia had expected to hear awe in Cedric's voice when he realized she loved him, wanted him, so much she cared nothing for the trappings of royalty or wealth that had been offered to her. But he wasn't.

He was angry.

"I… I couldn't accept them." She stammered, confused.

"How many, for how long?" He snapped the book closed now and slammed it down on his work table, stepping back from her with an expression as tumultuous as a sudden, violent storm.

"I… I don't know. King Philip of Galdiz was the first one to make an offer for my hand."

"When?" Cedric was pacing now, as though he were an animal in a cage.

"Um… I was seventeen when he asked…the first time." Sofia stammered.

"Poseidon's pumpkins, do you mean to tell me you've been ruining your life for the last three years and I had no clue! Why would you turn these men down? The life they could give you! Did I miss the part where you'd gone daft?"

Sofia flinched at his words even as she backed away slightly from his restless movement.

"Why are you yelling at me? We aren't supposed to be yelling at each other!"

Cedric laughed at that, an ugly, hollow sort of laugh that hurt her heart to hear.

"What should we be doing right now Sofia? Falling into each other's arms and professing undying love because you've found some unfinished piece of rubbish you think is about us?"

Sofia's eyes grew wide at that, and she felt tears pricking at their corners. He didn't believe her about the book or the library. Yet he'd taken the book at its word about her suitors.

"It _is_ about us. It couldn't be clearer. I told you the books are unfinished because something has happened to prevent them from finishing. It's my job to help them find their endings, only in this case it's not just helping out. It's my life, _our_ life."

"Sofia, this is romantic clap trap. In real life two people so far apart do not fall in love." There was a finality to his words that terrified her.

"One of them does." Her words were barely above a whisper.

He stopped pacing then and looked at her with an expression so full of conflicting emotions she couldn't puzzle them all out. But she knew she saw pain and denial at the forefront.

"My little dearest one, you don't love me. You may believe you do, but it's just a fancy you feel because we spend so much time together. I see now I should not have monopolized you so. I've been selfish. If you weren't always with me, you would have found someone who suits you by now."

"Don't talk to me like that! I'm not a child anymore. I know my own heart! And I know yours!

 _Over their long years together she had fallen in love with her dark sorcerer, and her heart belonged to him utterly._

 _As did his to her…."_

"Merlin's mushrooms girl. People in books can fall in love as they please. A princess with her whole life in front of her can _believe_ she loves a man twice her age, but that man cannot return her feelings.

For him to do so would make him a monster!

I have been many things, most of them reprehensible, but I will not be the man who takes advantage of you. You deserve better, you always have. I will not stand in the way of that."

Cedric seemed to have run out of words then and turned away from her.

"You think it would be perverted to love me?" The words were mere whispers but they inspired such anger in Sofia she felt as though she were riding a rising tide. "How many children have you hurt Cedric? How many little girls have you taken advantage of?"

He rounded back on her then and there was a look of deep offense in his eyes.

"NONE! I have never hurt a child Sofia, never. How could you even think that of me? "

Taking the opportunity she closed the distance between them, grabbing his face in her hands.

"I don't.

I _know_ you're NOT a monster!

Can't you see loving me won't make you one? You love me because we were _meant_ to love each other. We're the soul torn asunder."

"Sofia stop it!

I don't love you.

You're denying yourself happiness for a childish fantasy that doesn't exist!" He ripped her hands from his face then, but she wouldn't let him push her away.

"Prince Aleric of Eldrid is coming here to court me. Dad has let me turn down every other man, some of them more than once, without an argument. But an alliance with Eldrid is big enough he's insisting I meet him.

Is that what you want Cedric?

Is that really what you want, for me to marry this Prince? For me to leave Enchancia to be another man's Queen, the mother of his children?"

"God dammit yes!" He yelled at her again. "Do you think I've spent the last three years in torment so you can throw it all away?"

Sofia watched Cedric's face drain of color again.

"I thought you didn't love me." Her words came out a whisper, but a smile of pure triumph lit her face.

"Damn you Sofia enough! There's no future for us. Why can't you accept that and stop pushing. "

"Because I don't believe you!"

Cedric grabbed her arm then, bringing her body flush against his own, pressing them together in the most intimate touch they'd ever shared.

His other hand went into her hair, gripping at her skull almost painfully, as he forced her to tilt her head up to his.

"Do you want to hear how I love you, Sofia?

Very well!

I love you.

I love you with everything I am.

I love you so much I wake in the night shaking with dread that something might have happened to you while I slept, because how can I live if you don't?

I have spent every day since your sixteenth birthday terrified you would come to me and tell me you were betrothed. That you were leaving your pitiful old master to marry a man superior to me in every way.

And when you turned seventeen a fresh new hell opened up for me.

I have loved you since you were a child.

But that was the love of devotion. The devotion of a lonely man for the one person who showed him kindness, who offered him friendship. That love was pure and good. That love redeemed me of some of the hateful things I've done.

Then one day I looked up, searching for little girl who brought such light to my life, and realized she no longer existed.

You were a woman.

A woman so peerless men would sell their souls to have you!

And I _wanted_ you.

I began to be tortured by dreams where I would spirit you away from everything and everyone. I would hide you away and keep you for myself so no one would ever part us. I wanted to be not just the only man in your world, but the only person!

And once I had you to myself I would _make_ you mine. I would have you in every way. I would spend our days and nights filling you with sons to take my wand and daughters so beautiful, and brilliant and headstrong they would shine like stars fallen to earth.

But it CANNOT be!

I won't give into it Sofia.

I won't pollute what we have with my filthy desires.

I have to believe there's a difference between dreaming of the sin and committing it."

He released her then, pushing her away with a force that sent her back a few unsteady steps before she regained her balance.

"Take the book and go.

Tell your father you can't wait to meet Prince whatever his name is from wherever and leave me.

You cannot force me Sofia.

I won't give in."

Cedric walked to the worktable and picked up the book.

Sofia wanted to say more, but she didn't know what. So she merely accepted the book and began walking towards the door.

When she was hallway through it she turned back.

"You can't force me either, Cedric. You can't make me marry someone else because you're afraid of what's between us. I love you and you love me. Nothing will ever make that right but our being together. "


	4. Chapter 4

.o~O*O~o.

 **Chapter Three**

 **Sofia**

.o~O*O~o.

Sofia tried to watch as the flying coach made a landing.

She supposed she should at least feign interest since its occupant was here to see her. But she couldn't really concentrate on anything right now.

It had been three days since her argument with Cedric.

The one where she somehow got everything she'd ever wanted- Cedric admitting he loved and desired her with an almost all consuming passion. And simultaneously ended up more broken hearted than she could ever have imagined possible- because he'd basically told her he'd die before he ever acted on his feelings and that he wanted her to go jump into the arms of the nearest Prince.

They hadn't seen or spoken to each other since then, and Sofia had been an utter wreck the whole time.

She'd turned it over in her mind again and again, but she didn't see any way they could ever come back from that conversation. And so she supposed she'd not only destroyed the hopes of their romance but the reality of their friendship.

And now they were standing side by side as they waited to give a full court welcome to her newest suitor.

Sofia took a moment to curse all the years when she'd snuck out of the receiving order to stand by him during one official function or another. Her father had finally gotten so annoyed by it he'd just moved Cedric's official spot so they always stood together.

The only way things could be worse was if Cedric insisted on performing the wedding ceremony himself. Maybe he'd like to witness the consummation too, just to assure himself she wasn't only pretending to move on.

The coach came to a halt and Sofia took a deep steadying breath to focus herself.

A footman opened the door and Baileywick called out for everyone to hear.

"Make way for Duke Halvard of Eldrid."

A portly man of about fifty made his ungainly way down the steps of the coach and bowed before the assembled family and nobility.

"King Rolland, it is a great honor to make your acquaintance. Thank you for the kind invitation to visit your beautiful kingdom. We are overwhelmed!"

The king bowed and then the Duke turned to all of them.

"It is with great pleasure I introduce Prince Aleric of Eldrid!"

Sofia turned back to the coach as the Prince stepped down.

A long leg and a pale hand where the first things to emerge from the coach, followed by a bent head of long, silvery blond hair. As he gained the ground Aleric straightened his frame and Sofia could see he was incredibly tall, perhaps even taller than her father. When he'd finished descending he looked up…directly at her.

Even though she didn't want to, Sofia couldn't help but admit he had a beautiful face. Large blue eyes in a pale face, a longish nose and thin but finely shaped lips, all coming to a slightly pointed chin. In the sunlight his fair hair and complexion made him appear to glow slightly.

He looked like a fairytale come true, an Elf Prince come to life.

Prince Aleric walked up to her the King and made a formal bow.

The two men then shook hands and Sofia could see he was indeed a hair or two taller.

He was then introduced to her mother and to James, and then Rolland walked him to Sofia.

"And here she is, Enchancia's fairest rose, my daughter Princess Sofia." Sofia tried not to blush at her father's effusive words.

She was pretty sure she he'd said the same thing to one or two of Amber's suitors as well.

Sofia remembered in the nick of time to curtsey and Prince Aleric bowed. As she was coming up he took her hand and kissed it gallantly, making some of the nobles around them ohh and ahh at the romantic display.

"I'm awestruck Princess Sofia. When I was told of your beauty I admit I thought there must be some over exaggeration."

Aleric paused for effect but the moment was entirely ruined by Cedric, who snorted derisively beside her.

Sofia felt heat creep into her cheeks. But Aleric continued as if it hadn't even happened.

"I see now these reports understated the matter entirely. I feel I'm in the presence of an angel descended from heaven.

("A woman so peerless men would sell their souls to have you.")

Sofia shivered as Cedric's impassioned words superimposed themselves on the moment, making her flush with want.

"That's very kind of you your highness." Sofia said instead, attempting a gracious smile to cover her distress.

"Please, I know we've just met but I would like not to stand on ceremony. I hope you will call me Aleric." He smiled at her then and she saw that too was perfect.

"I'd like that. Please call me Sofia in return."

With that they all made their way up the castle steps and to the dining room. They would have a state dinner first and then a ball in the prince's honor.

Dinner was a large affair and Aleric wasn't seated next to her, which was fine with Sofia. She'd never been one to be swept off of her feet by a handsome face and a few pretty words. And though his was probably the most conventionally handsome face she'd ever seen, it paled utterly in comparison to the face of the man she loved.

The man she wasn't talking to.

The man who was _of course_ seated right next to her, because as a girl she'd just get up and go sit in his lap if she got bored with the stuffy people and the stiff formal conversation of these things.

Those memories made Sofia hate the silence between them even more.

The steps had been bad enough, but this was worse. She and Cedric had always spent these dinners whispering to each other and making jokes about what was going on around them.

Now they sat in stony silence that felt as if it were choking her of all her air.

"So, what do you think of Prince Aleric?" She finally asked conversationally over her soup.

At first she thought Cedric might not respond. But when she turned to him, she saw he was looking at the Prince, his face dark and angry.

It didn't make her happy. But the spiteful side of her, a side she hadn't known she possessed until this very moment, was appeased to see him so upset.

When he turned to her though, the expression was gone. He looked perfectly composed.

"I think he's very royal."

"Oh good," she replied, goaded by his nonchalance, "I know that's one of your criteria."

Sofia took a dainty sip of her soup and noticed Aleric was looking at her now, a small smile lighting his face.

"My criteria?"

"Mmm, yes it seemed like 'royal' was high on the list of qualities you want in the man who's going to marry the woman you love."

Sofia returned Aleric's smile and then dipped her head in that way that royal maidens were supposed to, so that royal men would know they were chased and well brought up.

"Sofia don't," Cedric's voice was a whisper but she could hear the pleading note clearly.

"Don't what? I'm just trying to ensure I make you the happiest man on earth on my wedding day. When you spend it watching me marry someone else."

"Merlin's mushrooms I'm doing this for you Sofia, so you can have the future you deserve. You don't have to be so cruel."

Even though she knew that was only half the truth, Cedric's words still stung.

She looked down at the pretty gold necklace she'd put on for tonight. It looked strange there, as if it didn't belong. Yet Sofia couldn't help being relieved she'd put the Amulet of Avalor back in the jewel room. It surely would have cursed her for the things she'd just said to the man she claimed to love. The man she claimed was her very best friend.

"I'm sorry. I hate fighting with you. I hate all of this Cedric. It…it _hurts_." She looked at him then with all the love and all the pain she had in her. The look she got back was a mirror of her own.

"I know."

She wanted to rail at him, to scream that all he had to do to fix this was to tell her he'd given up on this noble stupidity, this _cowardice_. All he had to do was stand up and hold out his hand to her. She would take it in front of all these people and they could walk out of this room together, into their happily ever after.

But that would only lead to another argument and if he was at least talking to her she'd take that over the deafening silence of the last few days.

They didn't say much more to each other. But when he excused himself to head to the ballroom, to finish the magical decorations the king had requested for the night, Sofia felt as though they weren't staring at each other from twenty paces any longer.

When she stepped into the ballroom an hour later, just behind her parents and on the arm of Prince Aleric, she saw what Cedric had done. The whole room shimmered with silver and gold glitter that hung suspended in the air, swirling as you moved through it.

Above it all he'd conjured twinkling stars and even planets to make it seem as though they were dancing in the night sky.

She looked up in time to see him put his wand back in the sleeve pocket of his robe and walk out the balcony entrance.

And her heart constricted painfully.

Perhaps she'd been naïve to expect it this time, but they'd always shared a dance, at every ball since she was little.

She wanted to go to him, but she knew it would be a terrible idea even if it were possible.

They'd both been right in his workshop. They couldn't force each other.

She couldn't force him to act on his feelings and he couldn't force her to marry someone else. They each had to make their own decisions.

Hers wasn't whether or not she could bend him until he broke. But if she loved him so much that, even after the finality of his rejection, her feelings precluded ever being with someone else.

Sofia didn't think she would ever be able to love another man, but she lived in a world where love wasn't a prerequisite to marriage. And she knew she didn't want to die alone. She wanted children and family. She wanted a place for herself, where she could be needed and wanted.

As much as she loved adventures she didn't think she was enough like her Aunt to stay indefinitely single.

Looking at Aleric, as they danced the first dance by themselves, she wondered if she could like him just enough.

.o~O*O~o. .o~O*O~o. .o~O*O~o.

Rising the next morning Sofia sighed.

Today she would have the chance to get to know Aleric more personally.

They were slated to have breakfast on the west terrace. And then there was a whole swath of free time before she and Aleric would lunch with her family before going on a flying coach tour of the kingdom.

They hadn't talked much at the ball yesterday, but he'd been kind and attentive, dancing only with her the entire night.

Dressing quickly Sofia looked in the mirror.

She'd chosen a pretty indigo colored dress with a square neck that only came to her ankles. Instead of a tiara she wore a silver headband inlaid with amethysts and aquamarine stones and no other jewelry. She was hoping to spend the morning outside, perhaps a walk in the gardens after breakfast. And the less fussy her attire the better, sweeping skirts tended to get stuck on thorns or dragged through dirt.

Stepping out onto the terrace she found Prince Aleric already waiting for her.

"Sofia, good morning." He said, rising from his seat courteously.

She liked that he'd remembered not to call her by her title.

"Aleric good morning, did you sleep well?"

He smiled at her and she had to admit it was a beautiful, genuine smile.

"I did, your castle steward was nice enough to put me in a room that overlooks your woods. I felt very at home."

Sitting, Sofia and took a few pastries from the tray that had been set out for them and accepted some tea, which Aleric poured himself.

"I'd love to hear about your home."

Aleric spent the rest of breakfast telling her all about Eldrid, his kingdom in the middle of a vast forest.

It was a place of great beauty, where humans coexisted with magical creatures and nature.

He regaled her with tales of his childhood and stories of his friends. And Sofia was delighted to find not all of those friends where human.

He had a deer, Agnar, he'd raised from a faun after its mother had been killed. And he loved horses of all varieties. And being from such a magical place, he was not only fond of magic, but knew a little himself.

"Not as much as my brother. He's our Royal Sorcerer and a magnificent one, Arne the Ascended. But I know a bit."

When Sofia heard this she lit up.

"Really?" She asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Really, why don't you believe me?" He smiled at her flirtatiously but there was also real mirth in his voice.

"It's not that I don't believe you it's just that…well… I'm a sorceress." She said, lowering her voice conspiratorially as if it were some huge secret.

"Really?" He asked mimicking her tone of just a few moments earlier.

"Really, why don't you believe me?"

They both laughed at that and Sofia wondered again if she could like him just enough.

They hadn't known each other long, but she did know he was interesting and so far he'd been kind and he was definitely handsome.

"Well Princess Sorceress, I wonder, are you up for a little fun?"

"Define fun?" She said, leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms as though to say she would be the judge of that.

"Have you ever played magic hide and seek."


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who's been kind enough to review this story. It means a whole lot me!**

 **I wanted to update again today because this chapter is a smaller one, but it moves the plot along.**

.o~O*O~o.

 **Cedric**

.o~O*O~o.

The sounds of laughter floated their way down to Cedric from the terrace.

He was not only a fool but a masochist, that much was clear now.

He'd known Sofia would be on that terrace this morning with her handsome, young giant of a suitor.

Why had he decided gathering potion herbs was his most urgent task this morning?

"You've made your bed of thorns Cedric, come now and lay in it till you bleed out." He sneered at the flowers in front of him. They of course had no response, not caring a wit for his pain.

"You are doing this for her." He reminded himself.

Sofia was too young to understand now.

But what he felt for her, it was wrong.

No man should look at a woman he'd tucked into bed as a child and lust for her.

Oh yes, he could hear the argument she would make against that even now, he'd made it himself a thousand times.

Men his age married girls younger than she every day.

But those men weren't evil.

His greatest fear was that acting on his desires would stain her with his darkness.

That one day she would realize how wrong their passion for each other was, how it had corrupted her, and she would learn to hate him. She would despise him because, like a true villain, he'd always known but taken advantage of her innocence to have what he wanted anyway.

And so here Cedric knelt, dirt staining his robes, soil under finger nails, picking hemlock.

Maybe he'd brew a special potion with it all for himself.

After all what would be left for him once she was gone?

And when Cedric had watched Sofia dancing with that handsome prince last night, hidden in the curtains of the balcony entrance, he'd known this was the man who would take Sofia from him.

His black thoughts were interrupted by a puff of purple smoke.

Suddenly Sofia was in front of him, radiant, smiling, holding her wand, and completely out of breath.

"Cedric!"

She took a step back from him, startled by his unexpected presence.

Before more could be said a brown puff of smoke erupted from beside her and suddenly there he was, Sofia's handsome forest God.

"I win!" He announced triumphantly.

Then to Cedric's horror, Aleric wrapped his arms around Sofia in a loose, affectionate, completely inappropriate hug.

He was out of breath too and they seemed to pant into each other's faces for a moment before the overgrown youth realized they weren't alone.

The prince turned, staring at him with open interest. Completely unaware of the murderous bent Cedric's thoughts had taken as he watched him so casually invading Sofia's space, so unthinkingly pressing himself against her.

He acted as though he had every right to be there! As though it were his fate given due!

Sofia seemed to realize suddenly how close they were and Cedric saw her cheeks flush red before she untangled herself from the Prince.

"Oh, I'm sorry, how rude of me. Aleric this is Cedric the Sensational, our Royal Sorcerer and my former Master."

A wide smile broke on the Prince's face and he closed the few steps between Cedric and himself, extending his hand.

"It's a great pleasure to meet you Master Sorcerer. If you've taught Sofia her magical skills than I can see your title is more than deserved!"

The boy was unbelievable.

How could anyone be so young, so handsome, so rich, and so kind as well? The light of sheer goodness was shining out of him.

Together Aleric and Sofia were nearly blinding in their perfect purity.

Standing and brushing his hands off, Cedric prepared to touch the boy without acting on his inclination to wring the life out of him. He couldn't say he cared if he ended up swinging from a rope at this point. But Sofia would more than likely be upset by his hypocrisy if he first told her she must love elsewhere and then killed every man who got near her.

In truth the boy was everything Cedric ever imagined when he'd contemplated the man who should marry his princess. The man who could give Sofia everything he couldn't, the man who could save her from him.

"You do me great honor your highness."

Cedric bowed low and then took the young man's offered hand.

Aleric shook it vigorously before looking back at Sofia.

"We were just playing hide and seek." He informed Cedric. Though Cedric doubted the young Prince even knew he was still there.

"Shall I give you a chance to even the score?"

Aleric strode back over to Sofia, asking his question from far too close to her. Towering over her like a tree talking to a sapling.

"I never pass up an opportunity to win." Sofia declared, her eyes shining defiantly.

With that Prince Aleric waved his wand and disappeared in a cloud of brown smoke.

When he was gone Sofia turned to Cedric.

He saw sadness in her eyes, but something else as well. It was as if the few feet they stood apart where some sort of chasm she was trying to debate jumping into or not.

They stared at each other for a long time as Cedric watched whatever she was thinking go from a vague notion to a fully formed idea.

"If he asks, I'm going to accept him." Sofia's voice shook with emotion but her expression was like stone now.

"I'm sure you'll be very happy together." The words were like rot in his mouth, but Cedric forced them out anyway.

Sofia took a single step towards him and stopped.

Cedric could feel the tears forming at the corners of his eyes, and he saw quite clearly the ones that had started to fall from hers.

He saw Sofia's hands too.

The desire to take them, to pull her to him and make off with her was stronger than it had ever been.

How could he not? She was his one friend, his only love, his light and his salvation. She was his purest dream and his darkest desire.

But he _was_ her friend, and her mentor, and her teacher and everything else that made taking that hand an act of the deepest transgression.

And so he picked up the basket of hemlock he'd gathered, and turned his back on her, walking to the West tower without a backward glance.

There was another grand dinner for Prince Aleric that night, a farewell fete. But after performing a small show Cedric had been spared from any further attendance.

He planned to spend the rest of the night brewing potions, brooding over his accursed stupidity, and perhaps staring darkly out the window while he let his baser instincts try to convince him he'd done just fine without a conscience for the majority of his life.

Why did he have to develop one just in time to let it ruin his life?

Which was why he felt ready to murder at the mere sound of knocking at his door.

He was about to tell the intruder to go away when the door swung open.

"Cedric, the king wants to see you immediately."

Baileywick, the one person he couldn't send away, or kill. They all _liked_ him so much! Cedric wouldn't even have time to bury the body before the whole castle was looking for their beloved steward.

Standing wearily he let the older man lead him to the King's study.

Baileywick ushered him in and then closed the door behind the both of them.

It appeared this wasn't a private audience.

The Queen was there, as well as Sofia and James, all still in their formal attire.

"Ah Cedric! Thank you for coming so quickly." The king actually smiled at him.

They all seemed to be in high spirits, he noticed. All except Sofia who merely stared stonily at some very official looking papers on her father's desk.

"Of course your Majesty. How may I serve you?" He'd learned early how to say the obsequious things royalty expected to hear from their servants, but he'd never managed to learn how not to hate the taste of the words as they came out.

It grated always having to act so servile around Rolland.

He might have given up trying to take the throne long ago, but that was only because the girl who sat with her back to him now was more important than teaching her arrogant stepfather the lesson he deserved.

"Duke Halvard and I have been hammering out the details for the last two days and we have a nice first draft of Sofia's betrothal to Prince Aleric ready. While we work out the final points, Aleric has invited Sofia to visit Eldrid. It's a formal visit but also a sort of pre-engagement get -to- know-you- a- little- more trip.

Being that it sits somewhere between a personal visit and an official one I'm inclined to keep things simple, much like his Grace did bringing Aleric here. So Sofia won't need a full entourage, but she will need a chaperone.

Since Eldrid is a land renowned for its mystical nature, and since I know there isn't a person who cares more for Sofia's safety or would do more to ensure it, I'm sending you with her.

Rolland paused while he waited for the excitement that never came.

"Come on you two… I know you're always sneaking off on grand magical adventures. This time you actually have my approval."

Cedric began to wonder if there really was someone, somewhere whose job it was to pull the strings of fate.

If so this person was a complete asshole.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: Thanks again to everyone who's been reviewing the story. I really appreciate your support and encouragement.**

 **I'm several chapters ahead in writing. So I'm already at the point in the story where Cedric and Sofia are together. Just hang with me, I promise I'm not going to make this thirty chapters of Cedric being an idiot just to give you guys one kiss and say "the end". But like I said, the man's his own worst enemy.**

.o~O*O~o.

 **Cedric**

.o~O*O~o.

Cedric stepped out into the bright morning and had to shield his eyes from the oppressive sunniness of it all.

He'd barely slept last, plagued by dreams that tortured him into giving up his bed altogether.

Even the potions and spells he usually used to counteract the worst consequences of his lifelong insomnia hadn't seemed to do much good this time.

He felt like hell and knew he looked worse.

"Take care of our girl." Rolland said, as he'd handed Cedric a bag containing the ream of documents that still had to be signed before Sofia's betrothal to Aleric would be official.

Cedric looked from the King to the bag and back again as he wondered when he'd gone from being the second-rate hack Rolland wouldn't trust within ten feet of a wand to the person he expected to protect and defend his daughter in a magical kingdom far away.

He supposed Sofia was responsible for that.

Her admiration and love had helped him overcome a lifetime of insecurity. Over the years he'd managed to impress the king more than once and even save the kingdom a few times, with her by his side.

Sofia made him feel sensational and so he'd begun to live up to the moniker she'd given him.

Cedric never thought he'd want to curse her for that until this very moment.

With an uncomfortable cough and a nod in Rolland's direction, Cedric descended the steps, but stopped short as the door to the flying coach was opened for him.

Sofia was already inside.

She was wearing a beautiful plum colored travel dress with a fitted military-like overcoat and a tricorn hat with three pretty feathers all in different shades of purple. Her hair was done up, something she rarely did, with two long ringlets falling over her right shoulder.

She looked beautiful, oh so grown up, and completely miserable.

"Master Cedric?" The footman gave him an impatient look.

Knowing he couldn't put reality off any longer, Cedric pulled himself in and sat across from Sofia.

Once the door was closed, he heard the driver flick the reigns and they began to move.

Moments later they were in the air.

Sofia gave one forlorn look at the space between their feet. No doubt she was thinking about the fact they never sat across from each other, in any conveyance, unless there were other people with them. And then she turned to look out the window, completely ignoring him.

Cedric was glad for it.

Even looking at her this morning was an acute torture.

Not just because she looked positively breathtaking. Not just because he didn't want to have to argue with her again over his reasons for denying them both. But because the sight of her brought back the dream which had tortured him last night.

He'd long given up trying to control what his subconscious mind did.

So he was quite used to ignoring in the day the erotic visions of her he had at night.

But last night's dream had been an agony of a whole different sort.

He'd found himself walking down a hall in a strange place, a palace he'd never been to before, inextricably drawn to a door at the end of the hall.

Even before he'd approached it Cedric knew he didn't want to go inside.

But as often happens in dreams, his body was not his to command. And so he'd moved closer, as if floating, until he'd reached it.

The doorknobs where golden, fashioned into replicas of oak trees each with the face of an old bearded man carved into the trunks.

Cedric had seen his hand reach out to grasp one, and once more his mind recoiled, desperate to be spared whatever was on the other side.

Suddenly he was inside the darkened room.

There were sounds like sighs coming from within, but he couldn't see anything.

A candle burst to life from nowhere and he saw the sighing was coming from the bed.

There lay Aleric, on his back, with Sofia astride him, both of them naked, the candlelight playing off their bodies.

Sofia seemed insensible to his intrusion as she continued to move on her prince, letting out little cries of pleasure as she rode him.

But Aleric knew he was there.

Turning to Cedric the prince lifted one hand from Sofia's hips and beckoned for him to come closer.

"I have you to thank for this Master Sorcerer," the younger man said, smiling at him in something like gratitude, "come see how happy you've made me."

And of course Cedric's traitorous dream body had complied without consent from his mind.

He was by the bed without having seen himself move. Standing so he could see all of his Sofia as she continued to make love to another man, ignoring him completely.

"Have you ever seen such perfection?" The Prince questioned as he ran his hands through Sofia's hair, down her throat, across her collarbones, before slipping to her exquisite breasts.

Taking them in his hands, Aleric began to play with her nipples, making her moan and writhe on him.

"It's the contrasts that make her so tantalizing, don't you agree." The prince's voice was conversational now. "The fire in her hair makes the ice of her eyes all the more devastating. The tininess of her frame makes her voluptuousness all the more surprising. The purity of her soul makes the wickedness of her body all the more exciting. You'll never know that though will you."

Aleric laughed and Cedric felt as though he'd been punched in the gut.

"No matter, you were never good enough her, as you've always known. She deserves, she _needs_ , someone like me, someone whose soul is pure, whose heart is as full of light as her own.

But I thank you Master Sorcerer. I thank you with all my being.

You should leave us now.

There is nothing here for you anymore."

Cedric had woken soaked in sweat and trembling with misery, unable to even think of going back to sleep.

Finally looking at Sofia he wondered how it had come to this.

He'd told her she couldn't force him to give in to his feelings. And yet here he was only days later feeling very close to a breaking point.

She'd told him he couldn't force her to marry someone else to remove his temptation. Yet her she was on her way to court the first prince to set eyes on her since his rejection.

How had things gotten so out of control so quickly?

Damn that book! It was all that book's fault!

They'd been fine before that book.

They'd stayed on the path, enjoying what they could give each other, not daring to ask for more. And then that damnable piece of trash had gone and destroyed everything!

When Cedric was done cursing the book, he cursed the Amulet of Avalor as well. This was its fault too, choosing Sofia as a 'story keeper' or whatever insanity she'd called it.

Why had he ever desired something which seemed to have been put on this planet solely to devil him?

"Ohh!" Sofia exclaimed, sitting up in her seat and putting both hands to the window.

Cedric followed her gaze and realized the coach had cleared the mountain barrier which separated Eldrid from the rest of the world.

They were flying above a vast forest now, with trees so tall and ancient it was said no sunlight penetrated their cover to reach the ground.

And in the distance, still many miles away, Cedric could just make out the vast clearing in the center of which stood the Kingdom of Eldrid.

"I've never seen anything so beautiful in my entire life." Sofia whispered, reverence in her voice.

"That's because there isn't anything else as beautiful as Eldrid. I've never been here before but my father has. He used to tell my sister and me stories about this place. He called it the Kingdom of the Gods. It's a place unlike any other," he looked down now, his heart aching, "it's only fitting it should have a queen unlike any other."

Sofia looked at him shaking her head back and forth as tears shone in her eyes. But instead of responding she turned back to the window.

Cedric would have turned away too and left them both to their thoughts, but suddenly the coach was hit by a harsh gust of wind and Sofia was pushed forward.

With a frightened cry she flew out of her seat.

There was no thought in what happened next. Cedric simply reacted, shifting the few inches to put himself between her and the wood of the seat.

As Sofia's body collided with his, her arms went around his neck and Cedric's went around her waist.

Suddenly she was in his lap, her face mere millimeters from his.

They sat like that for what felt like an eternity, swimming in each other's eyes, breathing each other's breath. Cedric felt Sofia's gloved fingers curl into the hair at the back of his neck, and his own traitorous hands spread wide, holding her tight against him.

It was as close to euphoria as he'd ever come.

"I love you, Sofia," he whispered. "I know you don't understand, but I promise you, one day you'll thank me. This is all I've ever hoped for, for you."

One hand came out of his hair and cupped his cheek.

"I love you, Cedric. And everything I've ever hoped for is here with me right now."

He saw her lips part, her perfect mouth closing the infinitesimal distance between them, and he couldn't stop himself. Just once, Cedric thought, just one kiss. How could he lose her without first knowing what it was to taste her?

Cedric prepared to delve into the sweetness of her mouth when suddenly the coach touched down and they were jolted apart again.

As they rode up to the castle steps, Sofia found her seat again, brushing down the coat of her outfit, smoothing it though it wasn't in any disarray.

They didn't even have time to look at each other before the coach stopped and the footman opened the door.

Cedric knew he needed to step out first and so he took a deep breath for what was to come.

"May I present Master Cedric, Royal Sorcerer of Enchancia and emissary of King Rolland."

Cedric bowed low to the assembled royalty and nobility who had come to welcome Sofia.

"I thank you for your kind greeting," he heard himself say, surprised he didn't stammer in nervousness, "we are most honored to visit you're beautiful kingdom. May I present Sofia, Princess of Enchancia."

Cedric stepped aside as the footman came forward to help Sofia descend the coach.

She curtseyed prettily to the whole of the assembled crowd. And as she was rising, Aleric broke from his place on the steps, rushing down to great her with a warm hug before offering her his arm.

Sofia took it with a small smile no one but Cedric would know was completely faked.

Cedric walked behind them as they climbed the steps to meet the Royal family of Eldrid.

They were first introduced to the King, a large man, with long grey hair and a gray beard. He wore an ankle length green tunic belted with a gem studded leather belt, and a brown cloak of velvet trimmed in fur and clasped with ruby broaches at either shoulder.

"This is my father King Ivar." Aleric had a large, genuine smile on his face, as though he couldn't wait for Sofia to love them as he did.

"And this is my mother Queen O'dessa."

The Queen was a striking woman, many years younger than her husband, with long pale blond hair, the same shade as Aleric's, bound into a thick braid that fell past her hips.

On her head she wore a circlet of gold inlaid with sapphires to which was secured a long white veil that trailed down her back. She wore a dress of sky blue silk, with wide sleeves that fell to the floor. The dress had none of the flounce Enchancian women wore, and required no corset underneath, instead it to was belted with a cord of gold thread, whose tassels fell to the lady's knees.

Queen O'dessa smiled at Sofia, but there was an ice to the expression that had nothing to do with the color of her startlingly blue eyes.

"I'm so pleased to meet you both." Sofia said, bobbing another curtsey. "And may I introduce you to my protector Master Cedric the Sensational."

Sofia gestured back to him and he had no choice but to come forward.

King Ivar shook Cedric's hand amiably. He seemed a good humored and magnanimous man. But though the Queen's words were all kindness and welcome, the look in her eyes made the hair on the back of Cedric's neck stand up.

She looked as though she wanted to devour him.

And when Sofia moved on to meet Aleric's brother Arne and some of Eldrid's nobility, Queen O'dessa held him behind, wrapping both her arms around one of his as they walked into the castle.

"We're so pleased that both _you_ and Princess Sofia have agreed to visit with us." She said, smiling beguilingly.

The Queen continued to talk, never letting him go, as they made their way through the labyrinthine corridors. All the while, her fingers squeezed at his arm rhythmically, and Cedric got the distinct impression she was purposefully pushing her front into his side.

He wondered if he was misinterpreting what was happening, but every time he looked down at her, she gave him a decidedly coy smile and wetted her petal pink lips.

Whatever reaction she was hoping to inspire, the only thing he felt was deep unease.

Cedric wasn't sure why he was having this reaction to her.

She was a beautiful woman.

Not that many years ago, if such a woman had shown an interest in him, he would have gladly accepted her advances and thoroughly enjoyed her charms. Though confidence was never one of his strong points he'd never had occasion to worry about his prowess. No woman who came to his bed had ever left unsatisfied.

But then Sofia had burst into his world and even before he'd fallen in love with her, he'd become consumed with her.

He admitted fully he was an obsessive man. So from the moment he'd let her in, Sofia's friendship, her apprenticeship had simply subsumed his life to the point there wasn't room for anything else, not even a fleeting night or two with a woman.

Now he felt slightly shocked to realize just how many years it had been since he'd bedded anyone.

Nodding with feigned interest to something the Queen was pointing out, a thought flitted through his mind.

Could curing his desperate desire for Sofia be as simple as getting between the thighs of another woman?

His eyes moved to Sofia as she talked with Aleric.

She seemed enthusiastic, but he knew otherwise. Her eyes remained forlorn even as her mouth smiled and there was a tightness to her shoulders that betrayed, if only to him, how valiantly she was pretending to be happy.

Seeing her like that, knowing he was the cause, it was all he could do not to take her in his arms and kiss away her sorrow.

Looking back at the Queen he sighed, realizing that no, nothing but having Sofia would cure his desperate need for Sofia.

And so Cedric accepted he was doomed to remain in this ironic hell where he wouldn't allow himself to touch her, but couldn't bear to be unfaithful to her.

"Indeed, King Rolland and Queen Miranda are very excited by the prospect of an alliance with Eldrid." He replied to the Queen's latest comment, ignoring the way she batted her long, pale lashes at him.

The party finally arrived at the two rooms across a hall from each other which had been set aside for them.

They had about an hour to freshen up before the feast in Sofia's honor, and so Cedric shut himself inside his quarters the minute the Queen detached herself. Not giving a backward glance to anyone, even Sofia.

Going to the basin on the mirrored dresser by the bed, he poured water from the pitcher beside it and splashed his face in the cool liquid until his hair and most of the front of his robe was soaked.

He wasn't exactly sure why, but since the moment he'd stepped out of the coach he'd felt jittery.

Perhaps it was just nerves at realizing he would have to fend off the Queen the entire time he was here. He wasn't a people person to begin with and the thought of having to maneuver around her without offending her made him feel weary in a way he wasn't sure he could handle on top of everything else.

How had Rolland ever decided _he_ was the person for this task? And why hadn't he said no?

What perverse streak of masochism had made him come with Sofia to participate in what was essentially her sale to another man?

"You're a bloody fool ten times over Cedric," he said to his reflection.

Deciding he'd wasted enough time, Cedric went over to his things and pulled out his attire for the evening.

"When in Eldrid do as the Eldridians do." He scowled.

He laid out a ruby satin robe tied with a gold cord on which where sewn small emeralds and began getting into the black leather pants and red tunic he would wear underneath.

A half hour later he emerged from his room and went to knock on Sofia's door, it being expected he would escort her to the Great Hall.

"Come in," she called.

Opening the door, Cedric felt his heart drop into his feet.

She turned around, a frown on her face as she looked at him.

"I'm not used to these clothes, does it look alright?" She gestured to herself and Cedric wasn't sure he had the voice to respond.

Her dress was shimmering white with a silver undertone which caught the light when she moved.

It was the same style as the Queen's had been, but Sofia's left her shoulders bare. It had a small trim of pearls and diamonds along the top and at the ends of her billowing sleeves, which were slashed all the way up her arms.

He could see soft silver satin slippers peeking out from the hem of her skirt and her hair was pulled back, half up half down with a wealth of tiny diamonds woven into it.

Cedric fought the urge to fall at her feet.

"I think you've managed it." He murmured completely inadequately instead.

"That's a relief," she smiled, but as with every other expression in the last week, it was laced with visible sadness. "You look wonderful."

He looked down at himself, trying to hide the blush her compliment had caused.

"Thank you. It will do I suppose."

She must have thought as he did, that more conversation would end badly, because she came forward silently and wrapped an arm around one of his without another word.

There was nothing for it now but to walk to the great hall.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: I just wanted to say another huge thank you, to everyone who's been reading and reviewing this story.**

.o~O*O~o.

 **Cedric**

.o~O*O~o.

The night had been a success, politically at least.

They'd arrived in the Great Hall and been announced to the gathered nobility to thunderous cheering and applause.

And as they'd sat at the great table, Cedric had never felt more as though he was in a different world.

This was no glittering ballroom in Enchancia, with fancy chandeliers and marble floors.

King Ivar's Great Hall had stood for a thousand years. It was one of the original rooms of the palace, built when the place had been little more than the squat structure of a tribal chieftain. It was wood and stone, with holders on the walls for the large torches that lit the expanse.

The great table stood on a dias, and below it were many thin trestle tables where Eldrid's nobility crowded side by side, shoulder to shoulder as they'd done since the beginning of their kingdom.

And Ivar's people celebrated loudly, drunkenly, and wholeheartedly.

Even as alien as it seemed Cedric could tell both he and Sofia felt more at ease here than they'd ever felt at one of Amber's royal balls.

And Sofia had risen to the occasion beautifully.

Her natural talent for fitting in anywhere with anyone allowing her to smile beautifully, make conversation intelligently, joke wittily, and dance merrily, without a moment's hesitation or self-consciousness.

Aleric seemed utterly swept off his feet by her. And as for everyone else, Sofia made them all fall in love with her without even trying. As Cedric knew she would, as she always did.

Everyone that is, except the queen and her eldest son the royal sorcerer.

Having been given the seat next to Queen O'dessa, Cedric couldn't help but notice, more than once over the course of the night, that they seemed utterly immune to Sofia's charms. Looking on her coldly and even sneering at her with disdain once or twice.

It had unsettled and angered him, but he'd been powerless to do anything about it.

Indeed Queen O'dessa had unsettled him for more than one reason during the celebration.

"Master Cedric, I know you'll be very busy with my husband in the next few days, helping him bring our two young ones together. But I do hope you'll find the time to 'visit' with me as well. We have so few newcomers to Eldrid, and none of them half as knowledgeable or interesting as you."

She'd made her offer while running her fingers up and down the sleeve of his robe, heedless of who should see.

"I'm not sure how much leisure I'll have your majesty, but if I can possibly break away you may be sure I will look for you." Cedric had felt sick saying the words, but he knew he couldn't turn her down outright and risk vexing her.

And when he saw her cold eyes turn another discomfiting look on Sofia he felt certain he must not provoke the Queen, for her sake.

Yet the more he let O'dessa believe what she wanted, the bolder she became and all the while Cedric could see Sofia watching them out of the corner of her eye, even as he watched her with Aleric out of the corner of his.

When the dancing began, Aleric pulled Sofia onto the floor and Cedric had looked on as the prince spent the next several hours teaching her the steps to the intricate dances they did here, in rows of people, women on one side and men on the other.

The lines shifted and interwove and went back to their starting points in different patterns depending on the dance, but it was all beautiful and complicated and Cedric was glad the Queen seemed to be too intoxicated to suggest she try and teach him.

As the night burned on, most people became too intoxicated for anything to intricate and eventually the beautiful, skillful dances had given way to something Cedric might have expected more from a village dance.

People swung their partners around, a bit unsteadily, and simply let themselves move along with the music.

It was then he felt a familiar small hand clutch at his sleeve.

"You owe me two dances." She'd said, her smile wide, but her eyes fierce.

"Two, your math is a little off tonight. We only ever dance one dance together on any occasion, my young apprentice."

Cedric found himself calling Sofia by the title she hadn't possessed in some time. Perhaps in a bid to take them back to a moment when there was nothing but him and her in their own little world, without a care for the outside.

"You cheated me out of a dance the last time, Master." She said, pulling hard enough that Cedric was forced to his feet. "Which means I get two this time."

They were on the floor now, and Cedric let Sofia throw her arms around his neck and move them in time to the music. No two couples seemed to be doing the same thing and so he felt certain he wasn't about to embarrass himself too badly. And even if he did, Cedric felt sure few people wouldn't be remembering this part of the night anyway.

Once they were safely moving, he looked down on her with a disapproving frown.

"You shouldn't be dancing with me. This isn't one of Amber's balls. You're here to decide whether or not you're going to marry that boy. You should be dancing with him." He hated saying the words and he hated scolding her but it had to be done.

This was what he wanted after all, wasn't it? There couldn't be any waffling or she'd think he was giving her hope.

Cedric thought back to the coach and felt his body tighten at the memory of holding her all alone like that, of the kiss that almost was.

"I already told you, Cedric, if he asks I'll say yes.

This is what my family wants.

This is what they expect of me.

I've disappointed my dad for years even though he was too good to do anything but respect my wishes. It's time for me to do my duty. There's no decisions for me to make… unless you've changed your mind?"

"This isn't a game Sofia. You can't play at charming him into marrying you so you can hold it over my head like an ultimatum."

"I'm not playing at anything Cedric. I love you and I want to be with you.

You're the one playing with me. Admitting you love me in one breath and telling me to marry someone else in next! Telling me how you dream of us and then spitting on the dream we both have by saying it sickens you!

Would being happy with me be so horrible? Is the thought of loving me really so repulsive to you? Am _I_ so repulsive to you?"

"No!" The word was ripped from him against his will even as his arms tightened around her of their own accord.

Cedric looked away from her then, unsure what else to say, unsure if he could trust his traitorous heart to tow the line he'd made in the sand.

And his eyes settled on King Ivar, drunk and oblivious as his wife burned a hole in Cedric's head with her beckoning eyes.

"Sofia look at them." He said, not even realizing he'd meant to speak.

Sofia followed his gaze to the great table.

"Do you see them, the King and Queen?"

Sofia nodded, but her puzzled expression told him she didn't understand the point he was trying to make.

"If I were to forget every reason why we cannot be together, if were to throw it all to the wind, that would be us in a few decades. I would be old, gray, and past my prime, and you would still be beautiful. Young enough to want a man by your side who could still please you.

You'd come to hate being shackled to an elderly sod.

If I were to give into my selfish desperation for you, my just desserts would be to see you looking around a room, as she is now, for someone to take my place in your bed, and then in your heart."

The dance ended then and before Sofia could pull him into a second he walked away back to the table.

Never in all the years he'd loved her had Cedric ever thought he would be the one to walk away from Sofia. And now he'd done it twice.

He'd sat the rest of the night trying not to see much of anything.

Until Prince Aleric had taken Sofia to the floor a final time.

They'd danced a single beautiful dance, while everyone else watched, and when it was over Aleric went down one knee before the entire crowd.

Despite the fact he'd been pushing and shoving her inexorably to this moment, now it was here, Cedric wasn't sure he could handle it. As the handsome, dazzling heir to the throne of Eldrid declared his love for Sofia publicly and begged her to become his queen, Cedric felt that feeling, that soul deep bite of regret one can only know when they get exactly what they want only to realize they can't live with it.

Sofia had shed tears while she accepted him.

And for the first time Cedric hadn't been sure if her tears where from sorrow or joy.

Perhaps Sofia was already waking from the fantasy of believing she loved him to the reality that Aleric was a superior choice in every way.

If not now then he knew it would be soon.

Either way Cedric had truly lost her now.

No he hadn't lost her. He'd thrown her away with both hands and now it was too late to change his mind.

After Aleric's fairytale proposal and Sofia's emotional acceptance, Cedric left, uncaring if it offended the Queen. Like a wounded animal all he could feel was the desperate need to find shelter and solitude.

But even when he did his thoughts swirled around him, making it impossible for him to find the quiet that would bring sleep.

Instead he merely laid on the furs of the vast bed in his chambers, looking at the light of the fire burning in the grate.

It felt warm on his chest and made the black silk of his sleep pants burn his legs a just a little.

It was uncomfortable, but Cedric would rather feel the physical discomfort than the mental anguish he was suffering and so he tried to concentrate on it, willing his mind into a meditative state, hoping it would help bring sleep.

He didn't know how long he laid like that, but he felt almost peaceful when suddenly he heard Sofia screaming his name.

Bolting upright, Cedric grabbed the first thing at hand, the red robe he'd worn that night and threw it on as he burst through the door into the hallway.

"CEDRIC, NO!"

He heard the cry again, coming from her room.

Believing something must be terribly wrong, he ran to her, throwing her bedroom doors open.

Her room was dark, only the moonlight filtering in from the balcony allowing for any sight.

His eyes searched the room frantically, to find her tossing about in the bed.

Rushing over, he pulled the covers off.

She was asleep, trapped in the midst of a nightmare.

"Sofia, Sofia wake up!" He grabbed her arms and tried to keep her from thrashing away.

At first she seemed insensible to the real world, a prisoner to whatever night terror had her.

"Cedric, Cedric no, please look at me." She repeated the words over and over again, sometimes more coherently than others.

"Sofia, wake up!" Cedric shook her this time and she seemed to snap back to consciousness.

"Cedric?" She reached out to him, her hands coming around his arms as hers were around his.

He sat down on the bed and pulled her into his lap, bringing her head to rest against his chest, where the robe lay open, unbelted.

"I'm here little dearest one. I'm here."

"Oh Cedric," Sofia repeated his name, but it broke on a sob this time as she began to cry violently, rubbing her cheek against his bare skin, clutching the open sides of his robe in little fists.

"Dearest, it was just a nightmare, you're safe now." He whispered, stroking her hair.

"No, no it wasn't a just a nightmare. There's something wrong about her, I know it, and she wants you."

Cedric pulled Sofia from him then so he could see her face.

"What did you dream?"

She looked down for a moment, but even in the washed out light he could see her cheeks turn red.

"I…I dreamt…I was…I was in the hallway outside." Sofia began, her cheeks red with mortification. "I was going to my room when I heard a noise. I knew I shouldn't, but I went to your door and when I opened it you were there…with the Queen."

She looked at him as though she expected him to laugh at her or maybe get angry.

"The two of you were together…naked. You were on top of her, kissing her…inside her. You didn't see me, but she did and she…,"Sofia shut her eyes as though she couldn't look at him and Cedric realized she wasn't mortified, she was in agony. "She made me come to the bed, made me watch. She laughed at me, telling me how I would never have been able to keep you. How I was too innocent, to naïve to please you. How you needed someone like you.

And then she dismissed me, told me to run along.

But I wouldn't leave. I kept pleading with you to look at me, to acknowledge me in any way. I kept telling you that you loved me, not her, but you wouldn't listen." With that Sofia lowered her head and began to cry all over again.

Cedric felt a knot start to form in the pit of his stomach, something like dread and fear. Something that triggered his fight or flight instinct, making him want to wrap Sofia in his robe and steal away with her in the night.

How could they have such similar dreams, about this place and the people in it, just a night apart?

What was going on?

"Sofia I think we should leave here tomorrow." He said, his hand cupping her face, pulling it up so they could see each other's eyes.

"Cedric we can't. I just…I just agreed to marry Aleric. This is my home now." The tears came again, and Cedric didn't try to stop her as she clung to him and cried.

He looked down at her and realized again he'd thrown her away with both hands.

But thrown her into what?


	8. Chapter 8

.o~O*O~o.

 **Sofia**

.o~O*O~o.

Sofia felt the sun shining bright and warm on her face and whimpered.

Her head ached from crying so much and the rest of her body felt exhausted and weak, spent in the worst way.

Cracking her sore eyes open she stared at the canopied top of the bed and tried to make sense of her emotions.

She remembered her dream and Cedric coming to her in the middle of the night. How he'd let her cry until he was soaked in her tears, stroking her hair and laying soft, comforting kisses on the crown of her head.

When she'd finally cried herself out, he'd put her from his lap. Rising, with one knee still on the bed, he laid her gently back down.

For a few fleeting seconds Sofia had been transported by the moonlight and the closeness of him looming over her. She'd stared up into Cedric's eyes as he lowered her. One hand cradled her head as it touched the pillow, his other still lightly gripped her side, his thumb mere millimeters from the swell of her breast.

In that moment he'd been every inch the dark sorcerer of her fantasies.

She'd been unable to stop herself from letting go of his robes to bring her hands to his skin, running them from his collarbones to the waist of the flimsy pants he wore and back.

She'd never seen him in any state of undress and she'd been surprised, surprised and aroused, by the realization he wasn't skin and bones as she'd always assumed. He was slender and narrow as he'd always been, but his leanness was bone and muscle. Her hands thrilled at the contours of his chest, the line that led from the center of his stomach down into his pants. And in the dark she couldn't make them out, but she saw dark circles and patterns drawn on his skin, mystical tattoos.

She was entranced.

Cedric, all of Cedric, had stiffened at her caress and he was frozen in place above her now, still kneeling on the bed, his hands still on her as she looked from his body to his eyes.

Sofia knew he was about to leave her and she knew she wouldn't fight him this time. She'd given her consent only hours ago to marry Aleric. Touching Cedric in anyway was truly a sin now, no matter how much her body tried to convince her otherwise.

But this might be the last chance to tell him what was in her heart.

"My mother was seventeen when she married my father," she began, her voice barely a whisper. "He was thirty-five. They were married a decade before my father was lost at sea.

I was five when he died and I still remember him, them.

My mother was still young and even more beautiful than she is now, not even thirty. My father was forty-five, a big man going a little soft. He had lines at the sides of his mouth, and around his eyes from a life of laughter, and his hair was more grey than brown.

My clearest memory of them was sitting at the top of the stairs one night, peaking down on them, when I was supposed to be asleep. They were sitting in front of the fire, my mother on my father's lap. They were talking, laughing, kissing, utterly lost in each other.

It didn't matter to my mother he was getting old. To her, he was simply the man she loved, the handsomest, best, most perfect man alive. If he hadn't died, it wouldn't matter to her now what the rest of the world saw. He would still be all those things to her and she would still be desperately in love with him.

It wouldn't have been any different for us, Cedric.

I would never have been like O'dessa.

I will love you till I die, and to me you will always be the handsomest, best, most perfect man alive."

To her surprise he hadn't given her an argument. Instead he'd nodded his head and leaned down, kissing her once, softly on the forehead before leaving.

When he was gone, Sofia lay awake for a long time coming to terms with what was done.

Aleric was her future now.

She had to let Cedric go. She had to wall up that part of her and walk away from it.

She didn't know how long she'd stayed awake after Cedric left, but eventually even the pain hadn't been enough to fight the exhaustion. She'd drifted back into a restless sleep, images of her dream repeating themselves even as she heard Aleric's voice declaring his love for her over and over.

Now she bolted upright at the knock on her door.

Turning to the too bright light, she saw from the balcony doors the sun was high in the sky.

Before she could say anything the doors opened and there stood her betrothed, a tray in his arms and a bright smile on his face.

"Good morning," he said. There was a slight blush to Aleric's cheeks as though he wasn't sure how to be with her now they were engaged.

In truth, Sofia didn't know how to be with him either. They were going to be married, no doubt sooner rather than later, and they hadn't even kissed yet. Something Sofia wasn't eager to remedy.

Looking down at herself she blushed realizing she was still in bed, in her nightgown, and it was suddenly more translucent than it had ever been.

She hadn't cared a wit about that last night. Unconsciously perhaps, she'd hoped Cedric would see her. Yet the thought of Aleric seeing the same thing made her deeply uncomfortable. Sofia had never felt more like the up was down and black was white.

"I'm sorry to intrude so early," Aleric said as he balanced the tray in one hand and opened the balcony doors with the other. "But I wanted to be alone with you this morning. I thought we could have breakfast together and then I'd give you a tour of the castle before taking you out into Eldburg City. It's market day today and there's always a thousand things to see and do!"

Aleric's smile was sweet and excited and Sofia remembered that though she didn't love him, she did like him.

Rising from the bed, she threw a purple robe over her white nightgown and walked out onto the balcony.

They ate breakfast companionably, and Aleric asked her all about her past this time, letting her talk away about this, that, or the other, as he listened attentively.

Even though she liked him, Sofia found there was so much about herself she wasn't quite willing to share with him.

She didn't want to talk about the Amulet of Avalor and all the adventures it had brought to her life, which stunted her stories. She didn't want to talk about Cedric and the years she'd spent practicing magic at his side, falling in love with it and him. Because how could she?

And so she found herself telling him things about Royal prep and flying derby, about the castle and her parents and siblings, and she realized how much she'd grown apart from all of that and all of them.

In her heart of hearts she wasn't really a Princess anymore, she was a Sorceress and a woman whose world had been happily made up of just one person for some time now.

It puzzled her. She'd always thought of herself as a people person, an extrovert who was happiest among others. But that wasn't really true. She was someone who easily adapted to many situations, but no one had put a wand to her head all those years she'd wrapped herself up in her sorcerer.

Left to decide for herself, all Sofia had only ever really wanted was the companionship of her few true friends, Ruby, Jade, Lucinda, Vivian, Clover, and Minimus, and Cedric's love and friendship.

Clover and Minimus had died years ago and though she still saw her human friends, those occasions were father and father in between as adulthood beckoned them all to new duties. And so Sofia had buried herself in magic and Cedric happily, never really realizing or caring that her world had been shrinking.

All this she kept to herself though as she tried to find interesting things to tell Aleric. And he seemed absorbed with her no matter what she said.

When breakfast was finished, Aleric left briefly to take their tray away and let her dress.

Sofia hurried, putting on a pretty greenish blue woolen dress in the style they wore here, with a simple leather belt. She smiled as she put it on, grateful as ever to Baileywick. He was the one who'd thrown together her wardrobe for this trip and on short notice, but he'd given her everything she needed and all of it was beyond beautiful.

Putting on a pair of sturdy boots, Sofia braided her hair in one thick plait which she brought to rest over her right shoulder. She finished by pinning a beautiful amethyst broach to her dress, centered above her breasts.

It was wrong, she knew it was, to pin the gift Cedric had given her for her nineteenth birthday to clothes she was wearing to spend the day with another man, but she couldn't stop herself. He would be leaving soon and she would be staying. Soon this broach, her wand, and the knowledge he'd shared with her would be all she had left of him.

Aleric burst back through the door as she was stroking the broach and grabbed that hand, pulling her out into the hallway.

"I have so many things to show you." He said, his dazzling smile in place as ever.

They roamed the castle for hours, the gardens, the stables, the library. He showed her his favorite hiding places as a child and secret passages that had been added as centuries had passed.

Eventually they'd snuck down to the kitchens for a snack and Sofia saw that Aleric was friendly and easy with the people who served him. He knew their names and asked questions about their families, and they in turn smiled at him and treated him as though they would do anything for him.

It warmed her heart, so confused and doubting at the moment, to know she was marrying someone who was beloved by the people around him. Someone who didn't treat those who made his comfort possible as though they were little more than objects to be commanded.

After their visit to the kitchen Aleric asked her if she'd like to visit his brother's workshop.

Never passing up the opportunity to visit the lair of a sorcerer at work, Sofia readily agreed.

As they climbed the steps Sofia found herself curious.

"You told me Arne is your older brother," she began, watching as Aleric nodded. "Then why isn't he heir to the throne? Is it because he's a sorcerer?"

Aleric laughed at that and shook his head.

"No, we don't make distinctions like that here. Arne is not heir to the throne because technically he's my half-brother. My mother was married to another man before my father. One of his thanes, that's what we call lords here, Bjorn of Bandar. The man raised a rebellion against my father, and my father killed him in battle.

When he went to claim the man's lands, he found my mother there. She was so beautiful he fell in love with her instantly and promised not to punish her or the other thanes who'd joined the rebellion if she would marry him.

When she agreed my father adopted my brother and has raised him as his own. Arne loves my father and is happy to serve him as royal sorcerer. My mother is magically talented as well and so when he showed an interest and aptitude, my father sent him to be trained by the best. It's…."

They were most of the way up to Arne's tower now, and Sofia's attention was inexplicably caught by a large window. In a castle this old many of the windows had no panes, they were just openings to the outside. This one, large enough that two grown men could stand in, seemed to beckon to her.

Sofia hardly noticed as Aleric continued to climb the steps, talking animatedly all the while.

She hardly felt herself lift her leg, leaving the steps to stand on the stone sill.

She didn't even realize she'd begun to lean out, looking down at the long drop to the ground below.

She simply felt compelled.

The idea playing over and over in her head that, from here, the fall would feel like flying.

One foot left the stone, dangling off the sill with nothing but empty space below it, as Sofia let go.

"OHH!" She exclaimed, as a strong hand gripped her arm tightly.

"Sofia!" Without understanding how she'd gotten there, Sofia felt herself being hauled from the sill back into the castle by Aleric.

His handsome face was inches from hers, horror written all over it, as he wrapped his arms around her.

"What were you thinking?" Aleric's voice was raspy with concern as his eyes bored holes in her.

"I…I…don't know." She said, feeling as though her mind was emerging from a fog. "I don't even remember going to the window.

She was shivering now, gasping for breath as the realization of what would have happened had he not pulled her back, sinking in.

"Don't scare me like that again! I've only just found each other my Princess. I'm not ready to lose you. Not now or ever."

As Aleric spoke his arms tightened around her, and his mouth descended.

The kiss was impassioned and longing and filled with desire…but only for Aleric.

Grateful that he'd saved her Sofia accepted his heated kiss, but she couldn't make herself feel more than curiosity.

He was so large, she felt surrounded by him, engulfed.

It made her feel claustrophobic .

It was only the voice in her head, reminding her that she must become used to this, that kept her from pulling away. It reminded her this was only the beginning of more touches and caresses she would have to learn to accept, to try to like.

When Aleric pulled away there was a look of utter joy on his face.

He didn't seem to notice she struggled to smile back. He just took her hand firmly, so she wouldn't be able to wonder to anymore windows as they climbed the last few steps.

When they finally reached the top, Aleric knocked briefly before opening the door.

Arne was sitting at a large table in the center of the room, on which were spread many books.

Sofia could see the brothers were indeed complete opposites. They were both uncommonly tall and handsome, with large, muscled frames and long hair, but Arne was dark where Aleric was fair. It seemed too that Aleric must have taken all the smiles between them, because Arne wore the same somewhat sour expression she'd seen on him all day and night yesterday.

The tall, dark mage looked up and gave his brother an exasperated sigh before rising and bowing to her.

"Princess Sofia, I am honored by your visit." He said, though Sofia couldn't help feeling he meant the exact opposite.

Since she was in no way unused to the irascibility of interrupted sorcerers, Sofia said nothing about her future brother-in-law's mood and instead attempted to appease him with a smile she'd used frequently on Cedric in her youth.

"Thank you for allowing me to see your workshop." She said, beaming at him. "I've never been in any sorcerer's workshop except my Master's."

Looking around she saw Arne's lair was a great deal bigger and sunnier than Cedric's.

Arne was also a good deal more organized, with a designated table for study, another for his potion equipment, and a third for writing. The walls were lined with cabinets and shelves, all neatly marked.

The ceiling of his workshop was also an observatory and he had telescopes and other astronomical equipment on the second level, which was accessible by a circular staircase in the center of the room.

"I have something to show you."

Aleric pulled her to a back corner of the room and Sofia saw Arne take his seat again, going back to his book and utterly ignoring them.

They stopped in front of a tall object, shrouded by a large velvet covering.

Aleric removed the velvet and Sofia saw it was a mirror.

"When I was younger I would always come up here and pester Arne while he was working. It makes him irritable to be interrupted as you can see, so one day he made this for me. It's enchanted. It will show you anything you ask to see."

Sofia looked at it and felt her heart swell with excitement.

"Try it." Aleric motioned to the mirror. "You just have to ask it what you want to see."

Sofia thought for a moment. It would be best to ask for something specific. If she asked anything to vague the mirror might show them something she didn't want to discuss.

"I'd like to see my mother…please."

The surface of the glass shone in brilliant rainbow shards for a moment. Then her mother was before her, sitting on a picnic blanket in the castle gardens with her dad. They were laughing and smiling and then her dad leaned over and kissed her. They fell back on the picnic blanket, caressing and gazing at each other adoringly.

As Sofia watched them, she felt wonder at this amazing bit of magic, but also at her mom and dad.

She hadn't been lying last night when she'd told Cedric her mother had loved her father with a desperate, passionate devotion. Sofia had been old enough to see how her father's death almost killed her mother.

Miranda had lain in bed for a month after she'd been brought the news his ship had sunk in a storm somewhere off of the coast of Galdiz. And had Mr. and Mrs. Hanshaw not fed them and taken care of them, it was likely they both would have starved to death.

But here her mother was, happy and deeply in love with her stepfather.

Was it possible to love again, when you'd lost the only person you ever wanted?

Her mother seemed to be proof it was possible. But though she suspected her mother still sometimes felt guilty for moving on and finding new happiness, Miranda had moved on _because_ she fell in love, not fell in love with the person she'd moved on to.

Turning from the mirror, Sofia shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts.

Her mom and dad were getting to the point in their happy afternoon tryst, where it was probably wrong for Sofia to be spying on them from a magic mirror a thousand miles away.

When she looked away from the mirror it shimmered and her reflection returned.

"What did you like to look at when you were a child?" She asked Aleric, trying to concentrate on the man in front of her.

"All sorts of things, but when I was about twelve, Arne told me that you could ask the mirror to show you all sorts of things, not just…literal things. So one day I asked it to show me the most beautiful, intelligent, kind, and worthy princess in the world. It was a joke of sorts. I thought I could baffle the mirror so I could tell Arne he was overestimating his prowess, but then it showed me you.

You were soaring through the air on a flying horse, racing. You were so lovely I couldn't take my eyes off you. I watched you win your race and hug your family and I was enchanted."

Sofia stepped back from Aleric shocked.

She didn't know if he thought his admission would be romantic but she found it deeply unnerving, intrusive.

How long had he been spying on her?

Aleric must have sensed her thoughts, because his smile quickly evaporated.

"Please Sofia," he held up his arms in a gesture that seemed to say he wasn't a threat. "I haven't been spying on you all these years. I would ask the mirror to show you to me from time to time, but I never saw anything inappropriate. Just little tidbits of your life, things anyone might see.

You at school, on your horse, sometimes laughing with your bunny. Once I saw you dancing at a ball with Master Cedric.

I swear it was only a few times. But it was enough for me to know I wanted to know you truly, and not just as a reflection. Especially the kindness you showed to your Master."

Sofia's head jerked up at that.

"Honestly he seems such an awkward, bizarre man. That you were sweet enough, good enough, to show him kindness convinced me you were the woman I wanted by my side.

And then I met you and I knew I'd been right."

Sofia knew her expression had only grown more horrified.

He'd seen her dancing with Cedric and thought she was sweetto be nice to her strange Master.

He thought her 'kindness' to Cedric said something about her character.

Sofia wanted to hit him for saying such a thing.

She wanted to tell him she'd wheedled and cajoled those dances out of Cedric, not from the goodness of her heart, but because he was the only one she'd ever wanted to dance with. Because when Cedric's arms were around her she didn't feel trapped as she did with him. She felt free. Because she loved Cedric in a way she would never love Aleric even if they spent the rest of their lives together, even if she learned to care for him as more than friend.

She wanted to tell him he'd had no right to spy on those moments, no matter how infrequently he did it.

"I'm sorry if I've upset you," Aleric's face fell from sorrow and shame, "I just wanted you to know how deeply I care for you. I meant everything I said last night. I love you, Sofia. You were meant to be Queen of Eldrid, and I will do my best every day for the rest of our lives to make you happy."

He closed the distance between them then, and kissed her tenderly on the forehead.

Sofia willed herself not to pull away.

His mouth was on the same spot Cedric's had been last night.

It felt as if Aleric was erasing Cedric's kiss, replacing it.

When he moved back there was hope in his eyes.

"Why don't we go to Eldburg now, and enjoy the market. I'm sure Arne is quite put out by how long we've stayed."

Sofia looked over at the Sorcerer's orange silk clad back. He didn't even seem to know, or perhaps didn't care, they were still there.

"Alright," she said, trying to make her voice light, nonchalant.

"Why don't we fetch Master Cedric to come with us too?"

Sofia looked up at him startled.

"He's supposed to be your chaperone on this trip after all, and there are plenty of magical stalls on any given day. He might enjoy bringing back a souvenir or two of his stay. Besides, I know how dear he is to you."

Sofia could tell Aleric was trying to smooth over the unintended bad feelings his admission had caused.

The part of her that always felt compelled to please others, wanted to tell him everything was alright and they should just forget it, but she held her tongue. As two faced and terrible as it probably was, she wanted Cedric, needed him right now.

Aleric's admission, the terrifying event on the stairs, her dream from last night, she just needed him. And for once she didn't allow herself to feel guilty for being selfish.


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who's been reading and especially reviewing this story. It really means a lot!**

 **Also I don't understand the rules for talking to dragons. It seems like everyone can understand the dragons who live in the blazing palisades, but no one except Sofia can understand Crackle or that super annoying dragon Crispy. So I went with everyone can understand dragons.**

.o~O*O~o.

 **Sofia**

.o~O*O~o.

"Now to the matter of Sofia's bride price."

Cedric watched as King Ivar's face turned a kind of purplish red and the vein in his forehead popped out prominently.

They'd been at it for hours and the pristine papers Rolland had entrusted him with were now nothing more than scrap with lines through almost everything and annotations on everything else.

After leaving Sofia, Cedric had spent the better part of the night going back and forth with himself, trying to figure out if there was truly something amiss here or if he was merely seeing disaster where none existed. Part of him argued he was making portents out of nothing because losing her was now a reality and, like the wretch he'd proved himself to be through this whole thing, he couldn't live with the consequences of what he'd done.

In the end, he did something which surprised even himself.

Cedric trusted his instincts.

Their all to similar dreams, his unease here, the eerie dislike the Queen had for Sofia and the even odder interest she had in him, they were more than just coincidences.

And so Cedric spent the waning hours till dawn pouring through the contract Rolland had sent, looking for any way to get them out of this.

His eyes were watering by the time he'd come across the first of four places where the king had made small annotations. Suddenly he remembered Rolland saying there were still minor details to be worked out.

Cedric looked at them and realized this was his answer.

In the worst case, he made an issue of any little thing he could and bought them time.

In the best case, Ivar got so angry he called the whole thing off and sent Sofia packing back to Enchancia a free woman.

It wasn't as satisfying as saving his princess by a show of magical prowess, like defeating an invading army or slaying a fiery dragon. But then when they had actually been threatened by a dragon Sofia had insisted she talk to the creature first and try to find a peaceful solution.

Instead of felling the beast with his amazing powers he and Sofia had ended up eating fly cakes and having cave moss tea with it while swapping stories about how difficult knights could be, stubborn, muscle bound, war mongers.

Still in the end, they'd returned home dragon tamers.

Cedric the Dragon Tamer wasn't nearly as heroic as Cedric the Dragon Slayer, but he would take it any day over Cedric the Bureaucratic Nitpicker. Still if red tape could get Sofia out of this damned place without starting a war he'd take it.

If it couldn't...well he hoped between Rolland and Ivar they'd put a descent price on his head.

"You can't be serious! You want to fight about _this_ now?" Ivar looked as though he were ready hit something, probably Cedric.

"Indeed, it's not enough money. If something should happen to your son, the Princess would need more to live on, especially if there are children to take care of."

"If something happens to the boy we'll be here to take care of her and you damned well better believe I'll take care of my grandchildren and the heirs to my throne!" Ivar was spitting now, his honor having been offended.

"With respect," Cedric pinned him with a gaze that completely lacked anything like respect, "if your son is dead, then you must at least entertain the idea you'll already be dead as well. What would stop your elder son from killing my Princess and your grandchild and seizing the throne? Sofia will be quite alone in a foreign land and money is protection."

"This is outrageous!"

"I was sent here to look to the safety and comfort of my Princess." Cedric made his voice intentionally bored now, hoping to goad the other man to further anger.

"Oh yes, I saw last night how _interested_ you are in the 'comfort' of your Princess." Ivar pinned him with a piercing look, and Cedric realized he'd been too quick to dismiss the king as a jolly, clueless, cuckold.

"I have no idea what you're insinuating." Cedric retorted, attempting to hold on to that bored tone.

Ivar snorted at him.

"Of course not.

My wife can try to seduce you till she's blue in the face for all the good it will do her. I see you sorcerer and I see your Princess. Mark my words, if the girl comes to my son's bed anything but a snow white virgin I'll know who to go looking for."

"Father."

They both turned to see Aleric standing in the doorway, shock on his face, Sofia just a few paces behind him.

"What are you doing here, boy?" Ivar had the good grace to look embarrassed when he realized, like Cedric, he had no idea how long the two young people had been standing there.

"Sofia and I are going to Eldburg and we thought, since Master Cedric is her chaperone, it would only be fitting for him to come with us." Aleric's voice had an odd quality to it and Cedric was sure he'd heard the worst of it.

Ivar's look was cutting.

"Go, even if you don't need a break from trying to thieve me out of more money than any woman is worth, I do."

Cedric couldn't say he was unhappy to get out of that room. And though spending an afternoon watching Aleric touch Sofia would be excruciating, it meant things would go unresolved for that much longer, giving him time to figure out what in Odin's Icicles was going on here.

They rode to the city in silence, Sofia sitting by herself on one bench of the carriage while Aleric and Cedric took the other. Cedric noticed both Aleric and Sofia looked out of sorts but he doubted it was for the same reasons.

As the carriage wound around cobblestone streets and through the press of people, Cedric let his mind be numbed by the sights around him. Eldrid was truly beautiful, as was its capital city.

Eldbrug stood on the edge of the great forest that surrounded the kingdom and everything was green and pristine. The air smelled of pine and cedar. The streets were filled with happy people going about their day, stopping to wave and cheer at the royal carriage as it passed.

When the coach stopped Cedric and Aleric each offered Sofia a hand down and she ended up taking them both in a move Cedric could only compliment for its diplomacy.

Soon they were lost among the stalls.

Food, drink, goods, clothes, jewelry, books, trinkets, magical charms, everything was here to see and buy, all rustically displayed.

Aleric had them start in the middle and work their way out, explaining what things were when Sofia or even he was confused.

It took about an hour, but by the time they were looking through the outer ring of stalls he seemed to have regained the good natured-ness Cedric already associated with the boy.

In all of this, Cedric found himself feeling unexpectedly sorry for Aleric.

Merlin knew he wanted to hate the boy. But Aleric possessed the same quality Sofia did, that almost mystical ability to make even people who _wanted_ to dislike him unable.

Aleric was kind and good, thoughtful and bright, all on top of being desperately good looking. Any Prince with all those qualities combined should have found it easy to secure a wife who adored him.

Instead the boy would end up broken hearted if Cedric could manage to get Sofia out of here. Or, in the event he failed and Rolland had him executed, Aleric would wind up with a wife who didn't love him. A wife who closed her eyes and dreamt of an ugly, skinny, _dead_ criminal twice their age every time she was underneath him.

There was a pathetic-ness in that Cedric didn't think Aleric had been raised to handle.

They had moved to a stall on the edge of the market that sold rare spell books. He and Sofia were happily perusing them, opening this one or that one to share what was inside with each other, when Aleric, obviously feeling out of his depth, took up a conversation with a merchant two stalls down.

Cedric was just pulling an old tomb, brittle with age and crumbling about the edges, from the back of a few stacks when he realized Sofia wasn't next to him any longer.

Replacing the book Cedric looked around the little stall, but she wasn't anywhere to be found.

Stepping out he looked again and didn't see her in any of the nearby stalls either.

Suddenly a flash caught his eye, Sofia's broach, the one he'd given her, reflecting the sunlight.

He saw her then, on the edge of the tree line.

She was walking into the forest, already a good way away from them.

Seeing Aleric hadn't noticed, and realizing Sofia would be engulfed by the tall trees and lost to sight if he delayed even a moment, Cedric took off after her.

He was halfway to the tree line when her figure disappeared.

"Sofia!" He called after her, but she didn't answer.

Cedric was nearly out of breath when he broke the tree line.

Looking around frantically in the dimmed light he tried to make out where she'd gone.

"Merlin's mushrooms Sofia what's gotten into you?" He half called to her, half grumbled to himself.

A twig broke somewhere in the distance and Cedric followed the sound hoping it was his princess.

The farther he walked the quieter things got.

Cedric wasn't much of a nature person, but being a sorcerer meant a great deal of gathering materials for potions, which inevitably meant time outdoors.

Never in any of his trips to the woods had ever heard any place so silent. Birds chattered, woodland creatures scampered, insects buzzed about, there were always sounds.

Here there was nothing.

To his left, he saw a steam and there, standing on the edge of it, statue still was Sofia.

"Dearest, if you wanted to take a walk in the woods all you had to do was say so!" He called to her.

Sofia made no answer, nor any movement.

When he finally reached her, what he saw terrified him.

Her eyes were like glass.

Like the lifeless eyes of a doll. No thought, no emotion, no being could he perceive behind them.

"Sofia." He said her name, surprised to hear the fright so naked in his voice. "Sofia look at me."

Nothing.

Taking her arms in his hands he shook her.

"Sofia!" He screamed her name now, as he rattled her little frame almost violently.

Suddenly she blinked, her hands coming out to steady herself by grabbing his shoulders.

"Cedric, what are you doing? Cedric STOP!" She yelled

His hands left her arms then, as if he'd been shocked.

"Sofia, can you hear me?" He asked, unable to stop those now empty hands from coming up to cup her face.

"Of course," She answered, looking a little offended at how roughly he'd treated her, before realizing something was wrong.

"Where are we?"

"We're in the woods, you took off from the market and by the time I realized you were gone you were walking into the forest."

"What are you talking about?" Sofia shook her head, confusion written clearly on her features. "I don't remember that…. Just like the window this morning." She whispered the last but Cedric heard it clear as day.

"What window?" He asked, tilting her head so her eyes were on his again.

"This morning, Aleric took me up to see Arne's workshop. On the way there was this window. I don't remember going to it. I just looked at it and the next thing I knew Aleric was pulling me off the sill. If he hadn't I would have jumped."

"You would have WHAT! Poseidon's pumpkins! Sofia we have to leave here. I don't know what's going on but we are not staying a moment longer do you hear me!"

Before Sofia could make any reply they heard it.

Whipping around he put himself in front of her.

Cedric saw only their eyes at first, red, feral, hungry.

Then slowly they slid out of the trees, hunched low, ready to spring.

"Wolves." Cedric's voice was barely a whisper.

"They aren't wolves." Sofia's voice was no louder than his but she was so close to him, her lips just below the level of his ears, her front pressed against his back.

"How in Merlin's name do you know that?" Cedric wasn't sure what possessed him to ask that or anything else at a time like this, but out of his mouth it came anyway.

"Animal lover remember. Wolves don't hunt humans. Their natural instinct is to be afraid of us."

"Whatever they are they're clearly _not_ afraid of us."

Moving ever so slowly, Cedric pulled his wand from the sleeve of his robe, pointing it at the animals.

Saying the words of a freezing spell, Cedric let it shoot forth only to see it fizzle before touching the creatures.

Sofia pulled in a frightened gasp of air.

"There magical, they're immune to the spell. Cedric we have to run, we don't have any other choice."

He nodded.

Pointing his wand one more time, Cedric said a few more words.

Suddenly a burst of light and heat shot into the midst of the wolf like creatures. It didn't hurt them, but it did startle them. They barked in fright, backing away a tiny bit, and Sofia took the opportunity to grab Cedric's hand.

They were running along the bank now.

Cedric was already exhausted from having run after Sofia and he was also fairly certain following this stream was not going to take them back to the city, but the wolf pack was right behind them, growling and snapping their jaws, so he ran, letting adrenaline help him to match Sofia's pace.

Suddenly he felt himself jerked back.

One of the wolves had caught the end of the voluminous Sorcerer's robe he'd put on this morning to be dressed properly for the King.

Cedric screamed and heard Sofia scream as well as his hand was ripped out of hers.

Thinking on her feet Sofia rounded, pulling his wand out of his hand and shooting another burst of heat at the wolves.

When they backed off, she ripped the cord that tied his robe until it gave and he shrugged it off as quickly as possible.

He wasn't quick enough though and a small wolf they hadn't noticed had managed to get around the other side of them. It lunged now, going for and catching Sofia's leg in its teeth.

Without his wand Cedric did the only thing he could, he picked up a rock and threw it hard at the creatures head.

It landed true and the wolf released Sofia to fall back stunned.

They started running again, but Sofia's leg was torn and bleeding badly.

Cedric pushed his head under her arm, slinging it around his neck, and took as much of her weight as he could.

Only a short distance later, he realized he'd been right. They weren't heading back to the tree line.

The stream was no stream, it was a tributary to a greater body of water, which it joined after a sickening drop from the cliff side they'd just come to.

Turning them Cedric saw the wolves closing in.

"Be torn apart or drown, those seem to be our options," Sofia whimpered at his side, her eyes glazing over from fear and pain.

He knew only one option even gave them hope of survival and so he turned again.

Gripping Sofia as tightly as he could Cedric leapt.


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: So I should probably justify that 'm' rating now.**

.o~O*O~o.

 **Cedric**

.o~O*O~o.

The fall was as terrifying as it was quick, sending Cedric's stomach into his throat.

But it was nothing compared to the sheer shock of hitting the water. Or the icy burn of the river's temperature, so cold it made Cedric feel as though his skin was being pricked by a thousand knives all at once.

Sofia was dead weight in his arms now as he struggled against the power of the currant, the way it used her dress to try and suck them down farther.

Within seconds Cedric was on the point of panic, running out of air fast as they continued to sink.

The cold and lack of oxygen where beginning to make him insensible. He knew they had only a few seconds at best before they were simply dead.

Sofia's hair floated around him, having broken lose from its braid, and it all but blinded him. Swatting it away he saw his wand somehow still clutched in her hand.

Yanking it out her grasp, he gave up the last of his air to speak the spell that would float them up.

Cedric's fear was palpable. He was starting to feel consciousness slipping away and the resistance of the water made proper wand movement almost impossible.

But suddenly they were rising.

They broke the surface an endless moment later.

Sucking in air, Cedric raised his wand.

Pointing it at a nearby tree he spoke the spell he'd used years ago to try and get Sofia's amulet to come to him, the one which ended up planting him in the stain glass window of the castle.

He was counting on the reaction this time, hoping the force would be enough to pull them out of the fast rushing water.

"Hatuzi," he coughed out.

Suddenly they were being pulled towards the bank.

At the last moment Cedric let go of the wand and he and Sofia fell to the forest floor in a sopping heap, as it hit the tree.

For a long minute Cedric just lay on the mossy ground.

They had lost the wolves, and survived the fall, that was something at least.

His body ached from the cold and the impact of hitting the water and when he turned to Sofia he saw she was unconscious and had begun shivering uncontrollably.

Shock.

Now they were out of the water her leg was bleeding again, and she was as soaked as he was.

Scrambling to his feet, forgetting his own pain, he ran to the base of the trunk, picking up his wand. He spared only a second to thank the gods it hadn't been broken by its impact with the tree.

Hurrying back to Sofia, he pressed down on her chest and what seemed like half the river came out of her mouth. She stirred momentarily, coughing up more water, but in the end she slipped back into insensibility without ever opening her eyes.

Once he was sure Sofia was breathing, he moved to her leg. It was badly lacerated, the bites so deep they went nearly to the bone, the skin around them black with blood.

Cedric felt panic rising in him. Staying out in the open meant risking attack by the wolf-like creatures again, something he couldn't do. But he had to stop the bleeding or….

Realization dawned then, if he didn't get her warm and attend to her leg soon Sofia would die.

Looking down on the shivering, bleeding wreck that was his princess, Cedric shoved down hard on his fear and spoke a spell that would staunch the wound until he could heal it properly.

Picking Sofia up as gently as he could, Cedric looked around, but it was of little use. He had no idea where they were, how far the river had carried them, or where he was going, so he simply started walking.

Cedric didn't know how long he walked but finally he saw the ruins of an old stone cottage.

There were no windows and the roof was a rotted, holey mess, but it had four walls and a door. They would be safer there than they were out in the open, and he had a terrible notion Sofia couldn't go much longer.

Pushing the door open with his foot Cedric maneuvered them inside.

The place had been deserted for a long time. Leaves and other forest debris littered the floor. What furniture there had been had rotted back to the earth long ago. But there was a stone fireplace.

Pointing his wand at it, Cedric spoke the spell that would create logs and light them.

On the floor next to the fireplace he pointed his wand again, blowing away the dirt and mess and conjuring a bed of thick blankets and soft pillows.

Laying Sofia down on the earthen floor he took her leg in his hand. Using her wet skirt to wipe away the dried blood caking her wounds, he held his wand over the gouges.

Soft light emanated from the wand, flowing into Sofia's skin. Slowly she began to heal, the blood under the surface moving away from the cuts, the swelling going down. After a few minutes the inside of the wound had healed and the skin began to knit back together. She would have faint scars where the wolf's teeth had punctured, but it was better than the alternative.

When he'd done as much as he could for her leg, Cedric knew the inevitable couldn't be put off any longer.

Sofia had seemed as though she might come round a few times while he'd carried her through the forest, once even whispering part of his name, but she'd never made it back to full consciousness. Now she lay on the floor moaning occasionally as she continued to shiver and her skin and lips took on a terrifying bluish tint.

Knowing there was no other way, he took her skirt in both his hands and pulled roughly, splitting the fabric.

Cedric repeated the motion three more times before the dress and Sofia's shift were torn all the way open.

Pulling her body from the sodden fabric he laid her on the blankets in front of the fire.

He had stopped shivering long ago from the exertion of carrying her he didn't know how far. And so he stood quickly, stripping himself, before lying down beside her, hoping the fire and his own warmth might be able to revive her.

Cedric pulled more blankets up over them.

Lifting her leg, he put one of his own between hers, and wrapped his arms around Sofia, pressing her against him.

She was as cold as death and he felt fear rear up again.

"Sofia, dearest, please you have to wake up now. You can't sleep anymore." Cedric's voice came out shaky, and he could hear his own desperation. "If you sleep, you'll miss the chance to triumph over me when you see how you've finally gotten your way and got me naked in your bed." Cedric whispered his words into her ear even as tears started to prick at the corners of his eyes.

She couldn't die.

She couldn't leave him. Not like _this_!

He would have lived every day in the hell of his own making knowing she was another man's wife. He could have consoled himself with the knowledge he'd done one truly good, truly selfless thing.

But she couldn't die.

Suddenly Cedric felt the full weight of the lunacy he'd been clinging too.

They wouldn't be here, lost in a frightening, unfamiliar wood, pursued by magical creatures, Sofia dying right in front of him, if he'd simply accepted what was between them when she'd brought the damned book to his tower.

Cedric's hands rubbed furiously trying to massage warmth into her. All the while berating himself silently for the fool he'd been.

After an hour of trying to coax her back to consciousness Cedric knew there was very little more he could do.

He kissed her cheek then, his tears slipping onto her face.

"Please Sofia," he whispered brokenly. "I don't care anymore what's right and what's wrong. I don't care if loving you is a sin. I can't make myself stop and I don't want to any longer. What good was any of it if you die? Wake up and I'll never let you go again. I'll never walk away again."

He heard a little sigh escape her mouth then, and felt her move ever so slightly against him.

Slowly her head tilted. Her mouth pressed against his ear so he felt her words and her breath blessedly, blissfully hot against his skin.

"Do you swear?" She whispered.

Cedric sucked in an elated breath as he felt her hand come to rest on his thigh.

It pressed lightly into his skin before moving its way up his body, over his hipbone. Her fingers tickled his ribs, shifting gently so they grazed his nipple, before caressing his chest.

Cedric held his breath, afraid to believe any of this was really happening as those fingers suddenly started to descend again, tracing the line down the center of his chest, down his stomach.

He groaned, his head falling back as her fingers kept going, slipping through the hair between his legs, until a single, delicate finger found his cock.

He'd been so afraid for her he hadn't realized he was resting hard against her thigh until that slight caress.

His hips moved of their own accord, thrusting his erection into her hand, and he felt slightly dizzy when she responded by gliding her fingers up and down his length, teasingly.

"You've been awake for a while haven't you?" He didn't really need to ask, and he found her uninterested in being sidetracked.

"Swear it." Her eyes opened then, brilliant and blue and full of life, burning with desire, as she commanded him.

" _Over their long years together she had fallen in love with her dark sorcerer, and her heart belonged to him utterly. As did his to her_." Cedric repeated the words which started all of this madness. "The book was right. I've been yours for so long, Sofia. I swear to you, I'm done fighting it."

Suddenly Cedric found himself pushed onto his back, his Princess looming over him, her beautiful body glowing in the light of the fire.

"I'm going to make you mine in every way my dark sorcerer."

Cedric was powerless to say anything as her hand encircled him, stroking up and down, making him whimper with need. And so he just looked into Sofia's eyes, watching as she possessed him.

"And you are going to spend the rest of your days filling me with sons to take you wand and daughters so perfect they'll shine like stars fallen to earth."

"Yes!" The word ripped from Cedric as Sofia's mouth descended on his skin. Her lips drawing patterns on his jaw, his neck, her tongue tracing his collarbones, her teeth nipping at his chest.

Cedric's hands went into her still damp hair, gripping tight, as Sofia's mouth went lower.

He cried out when he felt her lick the indentations at his hipbones, the lines that lead down to his groin.

"Sofia!"

Using the hand in her hair to pull her away, Cedric sat up. She gripped his shoulders, steadying herself, as he maneuvered her into his lap and wrapped her legs around his waist.

Everything seemed to slow as their eyes locked.

The distance between them grew smaller and smaller and then closed as their lips finally met.

Their first kiss was like lightening over a dry land and he gasped at the electric shock of it.

His mouth opened on the sound, only to feel the insistent caress of her tongue as she swept in, impatient to taste him.

The kiss went on for a long time as they pressed themselves ever tighter together, their tongues slipping and sliding over each other as their bodies did the same.

Hands roamed urgently, pressing into the nearly nonexistent space between them as their mouths refused to part.

Cedric felt Sofia's fingertips moving up and down his sides as she began to rock gently in his lap, pressing him into her folds, rubbing herself along his length.

Unable to resist their beauty any longer, he began to play with her breasts. Cupping both of them in turn, caressing the soft swells and teasing her nipples till they roused to press hard into his palm.

Sofia's mouth ripped from his, her head falling back when his caresses went lower, sweeping across her eager sex.

She gasped his name as he parted her.

Looking down Cedric was captivated by the sight of his hand delving into the most secret part of her.

He felt the wetness of her desire as his thumb found her nub, making gentle circles while his other fingers spread her wide.

Her grip on his shoulders was almost painful now, as he probed her entrance.

Sofia seemed to forget how to breath, her whole body trembling for an instant and then going completely still, as pushed a single finger inside her.

An arm around her back steadied her as he leaned forward, planting kisses on her neck and shoulders, listening to her shallow whimpers as he began to play with her whole body at once.

His lips moved down to her breasts, encircling her nipples, sucking softly at the aroused peaks, as his thumb flicked and rubbed at her nub, and the finger inside her began to thrust in and out.

Her soft sounds became louder, her body beginning to writhe to his movements, as another finger slipped inside her.

He worked her relentlessly, feeling as though he'd never known anything else but the need to pleasure her.

"Cedric," his name was nothing more than an airless gasp pulled from her seconds before her whole body seized in release.

"Sofia," Cedric kissed his way back to her throat, his face nuzzling into her hair as he felt her ride out her climax against his hand.

She breathed softly, hugging him tight as he felt the aftershocks rock through her.

Pulling his fingers from her, he massaged her slit gently, helping her calm.

"I love you." He admitted against the column of her throat.

Small hands cupped his head, pulling him from the shelter of her hair. Looking up Cedric watched a triumphant smile cross Sofia's face.

"Don't ever forget it!" She said, before pressing her mouth hard against his.

They kissed again as Sofia lifted up slowly, grasping his now aching hardness. In a single graceful motion she lowered herself down until he was poised at her entrance.

There was a moment of resistance and then the head of him was inside her. She was so tight Cedric thought he might die of it. But before he could succumb to the feel of her exquisite, velvety vice around him a pained cry brought him back.

He looked up to see tears in Sofia's eyes as his head met the barrier inside her.

"Slowly." He urged her, one hand leaving her hip to come between them again, rubbing circles over her once more.

Sofia moaned and this time there was pleasure in the sound.

They went haltingly at first, bringing her down inch by inch, stopping whenever it became too much for her

As she took the last little bit of him, Cedric eyes slammed shut. Breathing hard, he fought the impulse to move, determined to wait until Sofia adjusted to the feeling of being full for the first time.

"Are you alright?" He asked, opening his eyes focusing on her face so he would know if she was telling him the truth.

At first she only nodded, but after another minute, she seemed to relax.

"I've never…. It feels… I never imagined it would feel this way." She said, her face breaking out into a smile that lit her eyes.

Sofia lifted her hips slightly and instinct seemed take over. Cedric could see it was something deep within her that told her what to do now as she threw back her head, calling his name and starting to move on him in earnest.

His hands circled her waist, fingers splaying wide on her back.

His lips found her throat, trailing kisses downward.

His tongue darted out to play over her chest and taste her skin, intent on worshiping every part of her he could reach, as she rode him.

Sofia found a rhythm that had them both panting and before long, the sweet agony of it caused one of Cedric's hands to leave her back and plant, palm down, beneath them. No longer able to hold back he began to move to, thrusting up to meet her as she ground herself down onto his lap.

He heard her crying out constantly now as her movements became less measured and more desperate. She was close, frantic to reach her peak, pulling him with her every step of the way.

Suddenly she was flying apart, coming undone on him, the tight grip of her forcing him to follow.

He wanted to cry out to, to scream Sofia's name, but his voice was lost to the power of his release, and Cedric could do nothing but thrust erratically as he emptied inside her, filling her as she'd commanded him.

When they'd both finished they stayed wrapped around each other for a long time, still joined and breathing hard.

"I was a coward."

Cedric heard his voice fill the silence.

Sofia didn't move, her head still turned up towards, her eyes still closed.

"I was a coward. I was afraid to let myself love you. Not just because you're so much younger, but because I thought once I did, I would be too selfish to stop myself from taking everything from you. I was afraid I would lose myself in you and end up destroying you."

Cedric watched a small smile cross her face as she finally looked at him, and a laugh, sweet and pure, leaving her lips, even as she shook her head.

There was something infinite and wise shining in her eyes now.

"We're the soul torn asunder Cedric. You can't destroy me by losing yourself in me. When we come together we're only giving each other back the missing pieces of ourselves."

He leaned forward, nipping at her bottom lip softly.

"Then give me the missing piece of myself again."


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Everyone put up with so many chapters of angst and sorcerer indecision I wanted to let Sofia and Cedric have a little more alone time before everything goes crazy.**

.o~O*O~o.

 **Sofia**

.o~O*O~o.

Cedric knelt behind her, gripping her hips.

He was so hard and Sofia was so slick now, it took only a single thrust to bury him as deep inside as she could take him.

"Yes, dear god yes!" She cried out.

Sofia had no idea what time it was or how long they'd been here.

She _was_ sure it had been hours and hours since she'd last eaten, but they couldn't seem to stop.

Every time one of them tried to get up, something deep would flare inside and the other would pull them back.

She'd never dreamed it would be like this.

People were so secretive about sex Sofia had always supposed it must be something embarrassing. Then Amber married Axel and even though she'd been ecstatic on their wedding day, by the time they returned from their honeymoon she'd been miserable.

When Sofia had finally gotten her sister alone, Amber admitted tearfully that not only was Axel spoiled and arrogant, he was selfish and unkind as well.

Amber told her how much it hurt the first time. How it was always horribly uncomfortable. A sweaty, sticky, smelly, messy business that, only weeks into her marriage, she already loathed.

Sofia had felt awful for her sister. But more than that, she'd become secretly afraid. It was all too real a possibility she would be forced to endure a similar fate, especially if she ended up marrying a complete stranger or someone who cared little for her beyond the alliance she would bring.

But she knew now, it didn't have to be anything like Amber described.

In fact, it could be the complete opposite.

Cedric had been gentle and fierce by turns. He'd shown her things she hadn't ever imagined and let her make her own lustful if artless explorations of him too. But no matter how they joined he hadn't once shown the selfishness Amber implied was indicative of all men. Instead he'd been passionate and generous showing the depth of his love in every caress, in every kiss, in the way he watched her face for signs of pleasure, or changed his touch until she sighed or moaned, letting him know he'd found the perfect spot. And especially in the way he held himself back, determined not to find his own release before she found hers.

Sofia bucked hard now as she felt his hand snake around, sliding along her stomach until it disappeared between her legs.

"Ahhh," was all she could say as his fingers started making hard circles on her nub, pushing her closer and closer to orgasm.

"Come for me, Sofia," Cedric's words where a raspy whisper.

She knew he was holding on hard to control, his rhythm becoming erratic as he neared his release.

Sofia squeezed her eyes shut, trying to concentrate on the addictive feeling that seemed so close, but was managing to elude her. Without much thought she began to push back, meeting Cedric with every thrust.

She heard him groan and curse, sounds that seemed halfway between ecstasy and agony.

Suddenly she felt him take her bud between his fingers and pluck at it.

That was all it took

Stars burst in front of her eyes as her body seized. Sofia felt she was contracting in on herself and flying apart all at once. Only Cedric's hands on her hips kept her steady, even while he flew there with her, emptying fast and hot into her body.

Her legs finally gave out and she collapsed onto the blankets. Cedric let her go at the last moment, falling beside her, his head landing next to hers.

She smiled at him and wondered if her expression was as lazy and goofy as she suspected. Her whole body was buzzing. She felt intoxicated, completely drunk on him. Yet she was already getting tingly again, wanting to drink more.

"If you keep looking at me like that I won't be responsible for the consequences." Cedric leveled her with one of his sexy sneers.

"If you're really trying to keep me from rubbing myself all over you again, that's probably not the face you want to be making." She could hear the purr in her voice and wondered how she'd managed to become such a wanton in a single afternoon. "You have no idea how that look has tortured me over the years. You would make some wicked comment and curl your lip like that and I'd have to grip my hands behind my back and squeeze my legs together to keep from throwing myself at you.

I'm not sure what I would have done with you once I had you, but I'm sure there would have been a lot of rubbing and groping and kissing and begging you to help me figure out how to make it stop aching between my legs."

"If you're attempting to convince me I should let you rub yourself all over me again, that is _exactly_ what you should be telling me." His sneer was back and Sofia didn't hesitate a moment longer. Lifting up slightly she pounced, throwing herself on top of him.

They kissed and kissed, hands roaming, legs tangling together, until Sofia's stomach gave a load gurgling sort of grumble.

"Opps, sorry" She giggled, blushing.

"How long has it been since you've eaten?" Cedric had a scowl on his face now, and not a sexy one.

"I don't know. I don't even know what time it is."

Cedric craned his head, looking out the small casement that had once been a window and seeming astonished.

"It's dark out, real dark, not just gloom. It must be well after sunset by now."

Rising from their little makeshift bed he walked over to the crumpled pile that was their clothing.

Despite how hungry she was, Sofia felt herself growing warm all over at the sight of him striding about completely naked.

She knew Cedric felt inferior to other men, especially men like her father and his. But she could never understand why. He was brilliant and magical, and looking at him now, she knew she'd never wanted anyone else so completely or so shamelessly.

There was nothing saggy or weak about him. He was all clean long lines and lean angles. And the tattoos that covered him were positively mouthwatering. He had spells and ancient incantations etched on his arms and mystical symbols drawn in alluring patterns on his chest and back.

She'd been right all those years ago, he was utterly sensational.

As he walked back to her, wand in hand, he noticed her studying him openly and blushed.

Sitting beside her again, he pulled the blanket over himself.

"Are you cold?" She asked softly.

"Hmm, oh… no, why are you cold?" There was concern in his voice.

"No," she grabbed the blanket and pulled it off him. "But I'm much warmer when I can see you."

That only seemed to make him blush harder and so she rose on her knees and leaned over, cupping his cheek and pulling his mouth to hers.

He came willingly.

As they kissed Cedric wrestled her onto his lap.

Sofia gasped into his mouth, feeling their bodies slide together. All of her new favorite parts of him aligning perfectly against her, making her hot and achy to fit them together, like the two piece puzzle they now were.

If it were anyone else Sofia would have been utterly humiliated by how out of control her body seemed to be. It hadn't even been five minutes and she was already rubbing against him again, pressing her breasts to his chest, rocking her hips so he could feel her wetness sliding against his groin, trying to convince him to forget something as inconsequential as eating in favor of letting her ride him until they both collapsed starving but sated.

But with Cedric she couldn't find it in herself to be embarrassed.

Not when she could feel the vibration of his moans against her tongue and his fingers pressing eagerly into her back. When she could feel him hardening right against her entrance.

And suddenly… her stomach let out another much angrier growl.

Tearing his mouth from hers Cedric moved her from lap, setting her down beside him.

"We should eat something." He said decisively.

Waving his wand he conjured a veritable feast next to the blanket.

They ate in silence for a while, before Cedric put his plate aside.

"Sofia we need to decide what we're going to do.

"I've had a bad feeling about this place since we got here, but after today it's obvious someone is trying to harm you. You weren't yourself by the stream this afternoon. Only very powerful, very dark magic could have done that.

If I had to make a guess I'd say the queen and her eldest son seem the most likely culprits. They seem to dislike you out of all proportion to how long they've known you. In which case we cannot risk going back to the castle, we need to leave as soon as it's light."

Sofia looked down, knowing he was right but feeling suddenly guilty all the same. She loved Cedric so much and she'd wanted this for so long. She just never imagined they would finally come together only after she'd agreed to be another man's wife. And now she was going to sneak off without even saying goodbye to that man or explaining why she was going back on her word.

As though Cedric could read her mind, his hand went to her back, rubbing comforting circles.

"He'll get over it. Your life is more important than his pride."

"I know. It's not just that though. I just…I always thought I was an honest person. I've always tried to be good, to put other's feelings before my own, and yet I've been doing nothing but deceiving him this whole time. I didn't feel anything for him, but I encouraged him at every turn and…," Sofia looked up now with a horrified expression, "Cedric he loves me. He's loved me for years. He's been watching me for years."

Sofia watched the color drain from Cedric's face.

"What do you mean he's been watching you? " His voice was like ice.

"His brother has this enchanted mirror in his workshop. It will show you anything you want to see. When Aleric was little he asked it to show him his perfect princess and it showed him me."

"Please tell me you understand how deeply disconcerting that is?"

"I do. I nearly flipped out when he told me, which was why he asked you to join us on our excursion to the city. He was trying to smooth everything over and he thought he could use you as a buffer."

"Well thank god for that." Cedric's tone was as sour as she'd ever heard it.

"I know it's creepy Cedric, but it doesn't change the fact he feels something genuine for me and I used him over and over to try and escape our problems. "

Sofia watched a guilty look pass across Cedric's face, if only momentarily, before he took her hand in his, intently studying the sight of them entwined.

"When you said you would marry him did you mean it?" He asked after a long minute.

Sofia's eyes shifted to the blankets, not able to look at Cedric as she answered.

"Yes."

"Then you weren't dishonest. You can't be blamed if love makes a fool of the boy. It's been making fools of princes and peasants alike since long before either of us drew breath."

Sofia knew empathy wasn't one of Cedric's strong points, but she still wondered how he could be so dismissive of her terrible lapse in character. Given everything they'd been through though, she decided to let it go with only a shrug.

"Maybe not, after all we've apparently been around for eons."

One of Cedric's eyebrows rose directly into his hairline.

"You don't really believe that do you, Sofia?"

"The book said so. After all this you're still questioning it?"

Cedric snorted before pinning her with another sneer.

"Absolutely. I question utterly any book that claims I'm one half of some near divine being whose job it is to bring cookies and rainbows to the universe. And you should too. The whole thing is absurd."

It was Sofia's turn to snort.

"Cedric you're a sorcerer. You've been practicing magic your whole life. You said some words and waved a stick over a rock and created a living, breathing raven for a life partner. You put a bunch of completely random objects in a pot, stirred over medium heat, and ended up with a potion that turns you invisible.

You spent _years_ of our relationship trying to steal a piece of jewelry from me because you believed completely it would give you the power to…I don't know, kill everyone I love and destroy everything good in the world, but an unfinished book is your weirdness tipping point?

Please _tell_ me how that works? "

Cedric took a long drink from his cup.

"If you're going to put it like that…. You're taking the whole amulet thing rather better than I ever imagined you would." Cedric's tone was offhand, but his face as he said it looked slightly nauseated.

"You were never really serious about it." Cedric expression changed from nauseated to offended.

"Now who's not believing the book?"

Sofia huffed, rolling her eyes.

"I know you _thought_ you were serious about it, but Cedric how many times were we alone together in those years you were trying to take my amulet? I was a little girl. I worshipped the ground you walked on and thought you were made of goodness and light. Churlish light perhaps, but still, I never suspected a thing. If you really wanted it, you could have ripped it off my neck and shoved me out the tower window on any number of occasions."

Now he just stared at her, eyes wide, mouth slightly agape.

"I had no idea you were even capable of thinking such things. I thought I was supposed to be the malevolent half of our supposed shared soul."

"Well I have spent every day of the last ten years with you. If you've taken some of my goodness then some of your...'not always so goodness' was bound to rub off eventually."

Before he could say anything more, there was a riot of sounds outside the cottage.

Menacing growls were followed by sounds like shots and then a barrage of bright lights lit the darkness.

Cedric was up like a shot, wand in hand, pulling on his pants.

Sofia attempted to do the same, only to find her dress torn straight down the middle. Having no other alternative she wrapped one of the blankets around herself as best she could and followed him outside.

By the time they made it out the door, whatever fight had taken place was over.

Two of the wolf-like creatures were lying on the ground dead, and there were four figures in dark cloaks standing ten feet from them, one holding a torch, and the other three brandishing wands.

Cedric raised his own wand and put himself between Sofia and the figures.

"What do you want?" He sounded confident, but Sofia could feel the arm that held her back trembling.

"We are the hands of fate in this lifetime. We have come to help the soul torn asunder." One of the figures said in grand tones.

Stepping forward he lifted his hand to pull the hood of his cloak away.

Once he did, he smirked at their shocked faces as though it were all a fabulous joke.

"I say Red-brick old boy, you do end up in the strangest places."


	12. Chapter 12

.o~O*O~o.

 **Cedric**

.o~O*O~o.

"Graylock?! What in Zeus's xylophones are you doing here?"

"We told you Bed-Sick, we're the hands of fate. We've been watching after you and Sofia for quite a while."

As Graylock spoke his companions came forward, uncloaking themselves one by one: Wu-Chang, Wei-Ling's ancient royal Sorcerer, Amina Al Hezera, Tangu's royal sorceress. And finally the smallest figure….

"Aunt Tilly!" Sofia's voice was a high pitched squeak and Cedric turned to see her go five ever deepening shades of red before scooting behind him and pressing her blanket clad form into his back

"Hi Sofia dear, Cedric. We're glad to see you two so well, if a little underdressed. We were worried we wouldn't make it here in time."

Graylock snorted at that.

"No we're happy to see you underdressed too. I wasn't sure how much longer the _entire world_ could wait for you to grow a set Card-Trick."

"Indeed," Wu-Chang added, "It is most relieving."

Cedric knew he was blushing, tottering somewhere between anger and humiliation. The last thing he'd expected, after everything they'd been through, was to have open season declared on his manhood by people he would barely consider friendly acquaintances, their help be damned.

"Why don't we let these two get dressed and then we can remove to a more comfortable location." It was Tilly who spoke now, her expression kindly wise, the way Cedric remembered from their days as children in the castle.

Sofia all but dragged him back into the cottage, where he used a spell to dry their clothes and another to repair the damage he'd done to her dress.

Five minutes later they were outside again.

It was Amina who spoke the transport spell and took them all to a cozy, somewhat deserted inn.

"The family who own this inn are friends in our cause, they've been good enough to give us the entire place for the evening." Tilly informed them as the four 'hands' took seats around a large table by the fire. "Do sit down you two, we have a lot to talk about."

Cedric pulled out a chair for Sofia, letting her sit first before taking the one next to her, clasping his hands on the table.

He couldn't help the happy, abashed blush that lit his cheeks when one of Sofia's own hands reached out to cover his, right in front of the strange band of friends and acquaintances who'd burst into their night.

"How do any of you know about this… this…?" Cedric didn't know what to call it, other than total lunacy.

"Sofia dear you did show him the book didn't you?" Tilly asked, a raised eyebrow conveying her confusion.

"I did," Sofia seemed shocked by her comment, "how do you know about the book, Aunt Tilly?"

"Well dear you know I wore the amulet before you."

Sofia nodded.

"A few days before my twentieth birthday the amulet lit blue and of course I rushed down to the library ready to tackle another adventure. But when I arrived everything was still and quiet. Instead the amulet seemed to lead me to one of the higher shelves where there was only a single book.

I admit I was completely puzzled. But the amulet clearly wanted me to see this book and you know I'd never let anything stop me from poking my nose in where I thought it belonged. So I read it.

I recognized Cedric almost immediately, but I still didn't know why the amulet wanted me to see this book if the library didn't want me to finish it, so I put it back on the shelf and as I was leaving another book floated down.

I went on many more adventures for the library and finished many other books, but I never forgot that one.

So you can't imagine my joy when Rolland sent me a letter years later telling me not only had he found love again but he was marrying a widowed peasant woman with a young daughter.

When I finally came to visit and saw the amulet around your neck I had an epiphany. You were the princess in the book and I had been allowed to see it all those years before because I was meant to help protect you."

Amina took up the tale now, her voice soft and lilting.

"The four of us where the closest at hand, which is why we're here, but you have many people who have helped keep watch over the both of you over the years and they are ready and waiting to help you so the dark ones of the legend can be defeated.

Cedric just sat their dumbfounded and confused.

"I've known you for twenty-five years Graylock, are you telling me this entire time you've been keeping watch over me? If so you have a strange way of doing it."

"Yes it is rather a grand plot twist isn't it? I can assure you it struck me as rather amusing as well, but Amina and I didn't join the ranks of the 'hands of fate' until after we left Hexley Hall. I wasn't chosen until well after Enchancia's jubilee. Unfortunately Tilly's the only one who had an inside tip into the future and her role in it.

"So who chose you?" Cedric couldn't believe he was really entertaining the idea any of these people were sane at this point.

"You did read the book?" Tilly asked again.

"Poseidon's Pumpkins, yes I read the book."

"Then you know the legend. The forces of fate, which in reality are a collection of sorcerer's , scholars, and adventurers who have existed for eons, passing down the legend and training the next generation to take their place, they've tried to help the soul rejoin so the forces of evil could be defeated.

Honestly, there's a great deal of hope riding on the two of you this time.

The dark forces have been despairingly successful at keeping you apart and it's made them cocky. The idea of putting the two of you so close together might have seemed spiteful and brilliant at the time, but it took very little effort to maneuver things so you two would meet."

Tilly smiled at them proudly.

"Indeed by the time I was chosen, it was blaringly clear Sofia adored you, Neck-Crick. And for all your prickliness one would have had to be blind not to see how much you've always cared for her. We knew we just had to keep you safe and let fate take its course."

"You said it was easy to maneuver things so Cedric and I would meet," Sofia interrupted now, her face nearly ashen.

"Yes dear." Tilly answered, her voice cautious as she too recognized the horror registering in Sofia's expression.

"Did you or any of these other 'hands of fate' kill my father?"

Tilly's eyes went wide for a single moment but then they fell to her lap. As Cedric looked around he saw all of them becoming uncomfortable. Finally it was steady, Zen-like Wu-Chang who chose to answer her.

"Princess Sofia…." The elderly sorcerer paused, taking a measured breath before continuing. "You must understand, despite the ties of family and friendship you have with her Grace and Graylock, this is not a game to any of us. The fate of the world and all those in it rest on your shoulders and Cedric's.

But as it is your fate to join together and save the world from those who would destroy it with their evil, so it was each of your parents' fates to meet and bring about your existences, so it was your father's fate, Princess, to die so your mother might marry a king. No one had to cut his life short, he was meant to end that way before he ever began.

From the moment the forces of evil manipulated events to separate you in this way, that was your father's fate. Which is why we must help the two of your to join together and not let the best chance we've ever had to bring the world back into balance slip away."

Wu-Chang became silent then and it seemed they were all waiting for Sofia to make peace with what she'd been told.

Cedric let one of his hands slip out from under hers and brought his thumb and forefinger to her chin. Turning her face he leaned forward and let his lips brush hers.

"You mustn't blame yourself dearest. We all die. But I doubt he would have given up loving you or being your father for a few more years."

Sofia leaned forward stealing one more kiss.

"I suppose it makes no difference anymore." She replied, her voice sad but seemingly resigned.

Turning back to the group in front of them she seemed to steel herself before asking another question.

"So if we haven't rejoined by… _being_ together, then do you know what we have to do?"

The four of them looked at each other before Graylock coughed and pulled out a rather large book from the sleeve of his robe.

"Yes, well, you understand despite the fact there have been many attempts over the centuries, you two have never actually managed to rejoin, and it's not like anyone else has ever been in your position before so…."

Cedric couldn't help leaning forward then, pinning Graylock with a sneer of epic proportions.

"Are you going to tell me you don't actually know how to rejoin us?"

Another cough erupted from the usually flippant sorcerer.

"Well, it seems originally the hands of fate hoped you two would just know what to do, or that it would simply happen on its own. But that doesn't seem to be the case, otherwise it would have happened a long, long time ago and none of us would be sitting here. So they have been searching for generations. This is what we found. We don't know if it will work but it's the best hope we have."

Graylock opened the book to a page near the back and pushed it across the table towards them.

Cedric took one end of the tome and Sofia the other and they brought it in front of them, scanning the page together as they'd done over so many spells and magical books over the years. Cedric hadn't gotten to the end though before he stood up, anger welling inside him like a geyser ready to erupt.

"You can't be serious! You claim to be on the side of good and yet you ask us to perform a ritual so steeped in dark magic, so utterly beyond the pale of decency it was banished from all respectable practice an eon ago along with the black mages who created it!"

"We know it is extreme." It was Wu-Chang who answered now and Cedric suspected his place in the group was to be the calming voice of wisdom. For who would ever argue with such an ancient and respected wizard? "But you must understand, whatever must be attempted to rejoin you must be attempted."

"Oh and why precisely is that? As far as I can tell this whole thing is a load of flying horse bollox so large it can be smelled at a thousand paces! And frankly the fact anyone, _ANYONE_ would trust the court jester over here with protecting the safety of the world proves it!

All I keep hearing is how everything is going to fall apart around our ears at any minute now if Sofia and I don't accept our grand fate, yet it seems to me the world continues to turn without incident while everyone on it lives their lives perfectly fine. You're going to have to do better than this if there's to be even a chance of my agreeing to violate Sofia in this way."

"Cedric!" Sofia put her hand back on his as she looked up at him with wide, astonished eyes.

"Sofia, this," Cedric waved his hand over the spell book, "is exactly what I said it is. The fact they would try to and push this on us makes it a violation. No two people should ever be _asked_ to do this. No two people should ever do this at all!

Love, listen to me! I'm the rotten one in our relationship. I spent years manipulating you, trying to steal from you, plotting all sorts of horrific ends for your father and I'm telling you NEVER for a single second would I have ever entertained doing something like this to you even if someone could have sworn it would get me what I wanted."

Amina's quiet, lyrical voice broke in now.

"We know how much it is to ask Cedric."

Cedric snorted at that.

"Do you, _really_?"

"Believe me we do! But Wu-Chang wasn't exaggerating or being dramatic. There is a little known piece of the legend. It doesn't appear in every version and Tilly insists it is not in the book in your library, but it was known to me before I was ever chosen and it is the reason I became a part of this story.

If the Lady of light were to be killed then it is possible the man might be turned completely to darkness. It has been clear to me for some time, even from afar, that should something happen to Sofia, you Cedric would be utterly consumed by grief. And in the version I know if that were to happen you could become a vessel of utter blackness with the power to destroy the world."

Cedric found himself slowly sinking back into his chair. Not necessarily because he was ready to believe all of this, but because suddenly he realized exactly how much danger Sofia had been in since the moment Prince Aleric had written asking to meet her.

His voice trembled as he turned to his love.

"You're almost fall from the window, the wolves in the woods, O'dessa and Arne really are trying to kill you."

Sofia looked at him with a possessive fire burning in her eyes.

"And Queen O'dessa really has been trying to lure you. She wants me dead so she can have you and your powers for herself."

That Sofia cared more another woman wanted him than that her life had been hanging in the balance for weeks now astonished him, leaving him dumbstruck. It caused him to feel things he'd never felt before and he had no idea how to handle it. So he fell back on his second favorite defense, ill-timed humor.

"Clearly Eldrid must exist in a vacuum, otherwise she'd have heard what a second rate hack I am. The jokes on her I suppose."

"You're always underestimating yourself." Sofia said earnestly, and Cedric could see her shivering.

She was buying it all hook, line, and sinker.

"Nothing else can be done unless you both decide to go through with this." Tilly gestured to the book. "So perhaps we should all get some rest. Our hosts have given you and Sofia the room at the end of the hall upstairs" Tilly walked over to Sofia then, giving her niece a warm embrace and a kiss on the cheek, before walking down the hall to rooms off the common area they were in.

When they were all gone, Sofia turned to him clearly overwhelmed.

"Cedric I'm not sure if I understand what they want of us." She waved her hand over the book again and Cedric wondered if he wasn't developing an aversion for books. This was the second one in only a matter of weeks he wanted to send to hell. "This isn't a spell as much as it is some sort of rite?"

"Indeed."

"And it will join our souls, how?"

Suddenly he felt the need to move.

Standing again, Cedric began pacing the room as he tried to figure out how best to tell her. It was…dear gods!

But as he moved and things sunk in, he began to understand all of his objections to this, though visceral, were for her. Underneath the surface of outright rejection the darkest parts of him had started to whisper insidiously, urging him to do it.

Joining with her like this would make it utterly impossible for her to leave him, for someone else to part them. If anyone would regret this afterward it would be her, but for him… it was a seductive prospect.

It was the very urgency within him, to let her be persuaded by her virtuous and loving nature, to appeal to the side of her that would always give of herself to help others, to simply do it now before she understood enough to run as far as she could, which made him so adamant they must not.

Hadn't he always feared being with him would corrupt her, destroy her? And here was the means to that destruction, to stain her beautiful purity black with his malevolence, presented with a pretty bow and a card that read 'to save the world'.

"Cedric?!" Sofia stepped in front of him suddenly, taking his arms in her hands, before he could begin pacing again.

"Tell me you love me Sofia. I just…I need to hear it."

She looked at him confused, before tipping up on her toes to press her lips to his.

The kiss started out innocent and reassuring, but only moments later Sofia threw her arms around him and Cedric felt her tongue playing along the seam of his mouth.

Opening to her, he wrapped her up in his embrace, holding her so tightly he lifted her off the floor.

They were both overloading in their different ways, her with worry for the world and reawakened grief for her father, and him with the internal battle he was waging with his own nature.

It was too much. It would have been too much on any day, but after all they'd been through it felt like anything more, even a single feather's weight more stress would send them both over the edge into complete numbness. Cedric found his psyche fighting against it with the only thing it could, unexpected, completely inappropriate lust.

But the way Sofia was responding to him, he thought he might not be alone in his ill-timed need. Pulling away from her suddenly he began nibbling on her cheeks and jaw.

"We could just forget about all of this and go upstairs to a real bed." He got out between kisses. "I'll spend the rest of the night seeing how many times I can make you scream my name before dawn." Cedric gave her his best sneer now he knew she found them so irresistible.

Sofia kissed him again but pulled away when he would have deepened it.

"Cedric, I love you. I love you with all my heart and all my half of our soul. Please don't ever doubt it."

Taking his hand she led him up the stairs, and to the room at the end of the hall.

It was warm and cozy with overstuffed chairs by the fire and a huge canopied bed big enough for four.

Closing the door, Sofia took off her boots, before standing to look him up and down. Reaching behind her she popped the button at the top of her dress.

Cedric watched, captivated, as she shimmied her shoulders in the most seductive way and her dress slipped off her body to puddle on the floor.

He'd had her so many times in the last hours but he still couldn't help the hard swallow and the sweat that broke out on his palms as she made her way to him, sashaying seductively, all swinging hips and bouncing curls.

She was so heartbreakingly beautiful. Even if she hadn't been the kindest, most flawless being in existence she still would have been a stunning woman. But what was inside her shone out so completely it made her the single most exquisite creature Cedric had ever seen. He hadn't been flattering when he called her peerless.

And he loved her and wanted her more than he' ever wanted anything. He knew now nothing at all would ever cure his desperate need for her. Having her only made it worse.

She was in front of him now, her hands unbuckling the plain leather belt that tied his tunic, before lifting the shirt from his body.

Cedric helped her undress him by stepping out of his boots, as she unlaced his pants.

When they were both naked, she took his hand and led him to the bed.

They climbed into the enormous thing, but when they were there, she kneeled on top of the blankets instead of lying down.

Cedric had been so hopeful right up until that moment but now he knew he wasn't going to escape explaining.

Kneeling so they were facing each other, their knees touching, he took her hands in his own.

"Tell me."

Cedric looked down at their hands and then at the fire, exhaling loudly before turning to face her again.

"This ritual, its a dark rite Sofia, something taboo enough I don't recall an instance of anyone attempting it in living memory."

"But you sound like you know as much about it as they do."

"I don't practice dark magic because I've never been willing to pay the price, but that doesn't mean I haven't studied as much about it as I can and in those studies I've come across stories about rites like the one they're suggesting. I'm…what did the book say… the evil, the hatred, the vengeance, the greed, and the darkness in our binary being remember. "

"Cedric I know what the book said, but you aren't just those things. I see the good inside you all the time." There was something in Sofia's eyes he couldn't place, but he knew she clung to the idea there was good in everyone.

He wondered, if they were truly to do this, if he were truly to show her the darkness within him, would she still love him?

Cedric hadn't been lying when he said he was shocked she thought he would rip the amulet from her neck and shove her out a window, but that wasn't because he was incapable of committing such an act. It was because, from the very beginning, he was incapable of committing such an act against her.

"My dearest heart, whatever good you see in me is only your own goodness reflected back to you. I am everything the book says I am and more. The only reason I gave up trying to take the kingdom from your father is because I knew if I did I would lose you.

The only reason I do anything good is because of you. You're love, your goodness fills me and calms the darkness inside me, but without you I would be utterly what the legend claims. Amina was not off in her predictions. If something were to happen to you there would be nothing to stop the darkness from swallowing me."

Sofia stared into his eyes and he knew she was trying to see inside him. To see the truth of what he said.

"But love is an emotion filled with goodness. How can you be utterly evil if you can feel love?"

He raised their entwined hands, kissing each of hers, before pressing one gentle kiss to the tip of her nose.

"Love is an emotion that can be good or bad. People do extraordinary things in its name, but they also kill for it. And loving one person, even if it's with your entire heart, doesn't make you good, it makes you selfish Sofia. Something I have always been in spades."

She shook her head then.

"You would have let me marry Aleric because you wanted what you thought was best for me. You hid your feelings from me for years because you thought it was wrong to love me and you didn't want to hurt me. If you were truly nothing but evil you would have taken me when you first realized what you felt, even if I didn't want the same."

At first Cedric had no answer for her logic, she was right.

"We've spent every day of the last ten years together. I spent more time with you than I did with anyone else even before then. Perhaps, our being in each other's presence is enough for us to share traits." She smiled at him then and he knew he needed to tell her the consequences of what her Aunt and the rest of the crazies wanted.

"Sofia you have to understand what they're asking before you get too attached to the idea of doing this. To mingle blood… the right itself is considered unhallowed. Black sorcerers did this because it allowed the joined two to share their magical abilities. Instead of pulling from one pool of power, each person would get to pull from two. It makes the combined pair unimaginably strong.

But it has repercussions. I called it a violation because essentially it is. Once we joined you would be utterly open to me. Every thought, every emotion you felt, your magical abilities. I would be able to access them whenever I wanted."

She looked at him then, shocked.

"Would that ability go both ways?"

"It would."

"Wow…I guess that would be pretty amazing." Sofia looked down at their hands now as though she was imagining what they could be if they did something like that.

"It is an amazing power, but I told you Sofia, dark magic comes at a price. The price in this instance is never being able to shut another person out. We wouldn't hear each other or feel each other all the time, only when we wanted to, but if I wanted to know what you were thinking or how you felt you couldn't stop me no matter how badly you wanted to. It's a bond stronger than friendship and deeper than marriage. It requires trust on a level most people could never understand or tolerate and it's utterly irreversible."

"And this is what we have to do to save the world?"

"So the loony perverts outside tell us." Cedric sighed, releasing her hands and laying down suddenly exhausted.

"Perverts? Is there something you're not telling me?"

"Rituals by their nature must be performed before witnesses. And ones like this usually end in the participants copulating before the witnesses." Cedric stared at the fire, completely unable to say something like that and look her in the eye at the same time.

Suddenly the blanket he'd covered himself with was ripped away and a warm, soft Sofia was replacing it against his body.

"You're saying we would have to have sex in front of Graylock and Wu-Chang and my Aunt and whoever else decides to join the party?"

Cedric had no idea if she was intrigued by the idea or repulsed but she was breathing heavy all of a sudden.

"No, we wouldn't have to, but blood sharing is intense, from what I understand we would very likely be unable to stop ourselves from it." Cedric answered her honestly, but the idea of his perfect proper princess allowing him to strip her naked and mount her in front untold numbers of people seemed as unlikely as it was arousing. "Why don't we get some rest? It will be dawn soon and we don't have to make any decisions tonight, no matter what they'd like."

She nodded, but didn't move to get under the covers.

"I don't think I could possibly sleep with all of this buzzing around in my head. I'd much rather you made good on your offer."


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: Sorry this took so long to get out! I'm working this one hard, but it's fighting me.**

 **I stole a my favorite line from Beauty and the Beast for this chapter, because I know I'm messed up and think Cedric is hottest thing ever, but I think for other people he'd be the Beast to Sofia's Beauty!**

.o~O*O~o.

 **Cedric**

.o~O*O~o.

"It's dawn," Sofia's voice was a sleepy whisper as she gazed out the window.

Cedric tightened his arms around her, pulling her back into his chest and nestling her bottom even more snugly against his groin.

"Thank the gods," he chuckled, nuzzling his nose in her soft hair, "If it hadn't come soon you might have managed to kill me. In future you'll have to be more temperate when using this poor, old body."

Sofia snorted at that, wiggling her bottom against him and pushing her breasts into his hands.

Cedric couldn't help the buck his hips made, or the way his hands squeezed her perfect globes, or how his traitorous lips began laying kisses in her hair. He smiled, intoxicated by how she made him feel, as though he were as young as she was again.

"I think you've got a few more years in you," she giggled softly.

He wouldn't say it out loud but he'd been shocked by how young Sofia apparently convinced his body it was. Even as a young man he couldn't remember ever having had this much sex in one day. That he'd been able to accomplish such a feat on the cusp of forty was rather unbelievable. Still, no matter how much he wanted to, he knew he was well and truly spent at this point.

When Sofia turned, Cedric could see even she was tired. This night, the whole previous day had been a physical and mental ordeal.

"If you want to assure that be a good girl and let me get some sleep!"

He closed his eyes, ready to fall off into complete oblivion when he heard Sofia's voice from the crook of his neck.

"I want to do it." She whispered.

"Merlin's mushrooms woman," he huffed, "I told you, no more. You chose an old man, now live with the consequences!"

Sofia giggled again, snuggling into him more.

"Not sex, I want to perform the ritual."

Cedric froze.

Could she really mean it? Or was she simply letting herself be pressured by the crackers quartet downstairs.

"Dearest, I know you can't hear that someone needs your help without wanting to rush to their aid. So I can only imagine how you must feel believing the fate of the world rests in your hands. But Sofia as good and true as your desires are this isn't a decision you should make to please others or even to help them. None of them will have to live with the consequences. I wish I could give you a little of my selfishness right now."

She propped herself up on an elbow, so they could see each other's faces.

Her eyes were tired, but there was something else in them, an insecurity he'd only seen a few times before.

"You don't want to? You're turning me away again."

A single tear slipped down her cheek, but before another could follow it, Cedric had pulled her on top of him.

"NO!" He knew his expression was as fierce as his tone, because it startled her. "I swore I would never turn away from you again and I meant it." He took a deep steadying breath, trying to bring order to the many emotions that were swirling inside him.

"Sofia, if it were only my decision we would have done it already. The thought of having your light, your love, your unbelievable goodness inside me always, how could I not want that? The idea of getting to delve into the wonder with which you see the world, it would be like swimming in pure sunshine every day for the rest of my life.

But what do you get from this equation? You'd get to trudge through the swamp of my soul, to live everyday weighed down by my anger and insecurity. How is that fair?"

Cedric had never seen her look at him with such disdain.

"You're doing it again!" Her voice was angry and high. Her hands had formed into fists which thumped on his chest. "It's just like the day I brought the book to you. Stop trying to make my decisions for me!

You love me but we can't be together because _you_ don't think it's right for me. You'd join with me but we can't because _you_ don't think I'm getting a fair deal.

How about you let _me_ decide what I want and what I don't. If I'm old enough for you to spend the last eight hoursinside of, then I'm old enough to decide what I do with my life!" Sofia stopped suddenly, and Cedric watched as took several long breaths, forcing herself to calm down.

"I believe the book and Aunt Tilly and Graylock." She continued, her voice much softer. "But you're right, the world has survived this long without our rejoining. I'm sure it would survive another hundred of our lifetimes. I'm doing this because what I feel for you is greater than friendship and stronger than love. I'm doing this because the moment they told us, I knew it was how we were supposed to be.

What do I get out of this?

I get the man I've loved in agonizing silence for years. I get my destiny. Most people aren't meant to do anything or be a part of anything Cedric, but you and me, we do. And not only do we get to have a destiny, we get to have it together! That's… I don't have words for it. It's more than I would have ever dared to hope for."

"AHHHHHHHH!"

Cedric never got the chance to answer her.

Sofia was off him and out of the bed in a shot, running to the window.

"Soldiers, from Eldrid. They found us!"

She turned to him, as he hurried out of the bed.

"How in bloody hell… _we_ don't even know where we are, how can they?" He spit, hurrying back into his clothes and boots.

"Arne's mirror," Sofia supplied.

"Bugger fuck!" Cedric threw the belt that tied his tunic around his hips as he shoved his feet into the knee high boots, before going to Sofia and helping her with the buttons on the back of her dress.

They were ready, Cedric holding his wand in hand, when the door burst open.

Aleric stood before them, sword drawn, soldiers at his back.

"Sofia!" He reached out to her, trying to grab her, but Cedric pulled her behind him. "Let her go Sorcerer!" He yelled.

"Cedric!" Sofia called to him.

She was at the window, the panes thrown wide.

He rushed to her, taking her around the waist and leaping from the casement as he spoke the spell that would float them down.

When they touched the ground they realized they were in an all out battle. There were hundreds of Eldrid's men surrounding the little inn which appeared to be the only thing in a small clearing of trees.

Graylock, Amina, and Wu-Chang all fought with their magic against the soldiers, while Tilly used her umbrella, all of them trying to battle back the hoards of men without having to actually kill them.

"Sofia, Cedric, you have to get away." Tilly yelled to them.

She parried a thrust from a man with a pike and then caught him on the cheek with the sharp end of her umbrella, landing a deep scratch which sent blood pouring in his eye.

"That way!" She pointed to her right, into the trees. "Go, we'll catch up with you."

Sofia wanted to stay, to help her aunt and their friends and Cedric knew it. So he did the only thing he could. He grabbed her wrist in an iron grip and began running as fast as he could, adrenaline making up for the bone deep exhaustion he was feeling.

They hadn't made it far when they heard a familiar voice behind them.

"Sofia!" It was Aleric, he was chasing them.

Suddenly a puff of brown smoke erupted in front of them, and he was there, wand in one hand, sword in the other.

"Aleric please!" Sofia looked at him with pleading eyes.

"I'm doing this for you Sofia! For us! Can't you see he's put some sort of enchantment on you?"

Cedric let go of Sofia's arm then, pushing her behind him against a tree.

"Cedric?" Sofia tried to grasp at his arm, but he brushed her off.

"She's under no enchantment. The only reason she accepted you was because I pushed her to it."

Aleric scoffed at him.

"You're lying. You've manipulated her. I've watched you through the mirror for years. You're nothing but a dirty old man. You saw something young and beautiful and you wanted it for yourself. So you've twisted her mind to get it!"

Aleric's wand lit up with a sizzling sound, and Cedric watched as a ball of fire shot out the end, making its way to him.

"Aleric, don't!" Sofia yelled out. "Cedric is telling the truth. I love him. Please, please Aleric don't hurt him!" Sofia pleaded.

Feeling a calm he had never felt before, Cedric raised is wand letting the end shoot a gust of frigid air.

The fire froze into a ball of ice just inches from his face and fell to the floor, shattering spectacularly.

He could feel Sofia behind him, her body tense, wanting to get between him and the prince when there was a rustle in the trees and suddenly Tilly was beside her, pulling her back.

"Aunt Tilly let me go!" He watched Sofia struggle against the much smaller woman, out of the corner of his eye, but somehow she wasn't able to break her aunt's grasp.

"Sofia you need to let Cedric do this," her tone was calming. "It's what he needs to do to break the bonds that have been holding him back."

Knowing Tilly would hold Sofia back, Cedric walked towards his opponent.

"That's right old man! Come and fight me!" Aleric snickered.

His face was nearly demented as he began circling Cedric. The sorcerer turned in his place, tracking the younger man, but making no other move.

"When I've finished you off Arne will be able to figure out what you've done to her and fix it. There's no way anyone as pure and innocent, as beautiful as Sofia would pick you! Why would she ever want someone like you when she can have someone like me?"

The Prince sneered at him, as though he'd somehow already won with those words.

He should have.

After all they were the words Cedric had used to flagellate himself with for years as he'd fought the nearly crushing desire to take Sofia. They were the very essence of the doubts which had held him prisoner. They should have made him shrink and cringe. The man yelling them, so strong, so confident, so filled with righteousness, should have made him cower.

But they didn't.

Aleric's words had lost their power. Cedric let them slough off like a dead skin, taking the last of his insecurity with it.

Raising his wand, he pointed it at the other man.

"Why would she want me?" Cedric's words started quietly as he looked at the younger man, an evil sneer darkening his features.

"Because she LOVES me!

Because I am the other half of her soul you arrogant, entitled prick!" He was yelling now, his words ringing through the forest, reverberating with the power pooling inside him. "Something, for all your wealth and beauty and youth, you can NEVER be!"

Without even really meaning to Cedric watched a bolt of lightning shoot from the end of his wand.

It hit the Prince square in the chest, making a thundering sound as it forced him back into the dirt.

"All your pretty reasons why she should love you are as worthless as the dirt at your feet! She loves me and we belong to each other. If you ever raise your sights to my woman again I will rip your heart out with my bare hands and crush it while you watch!"

Another bolt lit from his wand, and Cedric watched as real fear crossed the Prince's face for the first time.

It went flying from his wand, and for a second he thought the boy might lie there and take it, but then Aleric was on his feet, lunging for him.

Cedric dove to the side, escaping an attack from Aleric's wand, but managing to catch the end of the long blade the Prince held in his other hand. It connected with a sickening slicing sound and Cedric crumpled to the ground, grabbing his arm, as he heard Sofia screaming behind him.

He got to his knees, knowing he had no time to coddle the wound when he felt a hard, muscled arm come around his throat, trapping him and cutting off his air.

"Aleric DON'T!" Sofia screamed out again as the prince hauled him to his feet, applying crushing pressure to his windpipe.

She'd broken free of her aunt now and was coming at them, full speed, with a fallen branch in her hand when everything became light and the familiar, slightly sickening feeling of teleportation took his insides.

They reappeared in a clearing where a stone alter lay ringed by seven enormous stone slabs.

"I'm going to kill you right here old man, as a sacrifice to the Gods for a happy future with my betrothed." The prince snarled in Cedric's ear as he dropped his wand and positioned his sword to slit the sorcerer's throat.

Cedric wouldn't remember later, repositioning his wand, or jamming the blunt object into the Prince's side, it was all instinct. But suddenly he was free of the iron grip, and twisting around to pull his only weapon out of the younger man's side.

Aleric made a pained, grunting noise. Blood began to spurt from the wound and he dropped his sword, not even trying to defend himself as the bloody wand, it's end glowing with unleashed magic, pushed menacingly at his own throat.

"I thought you were going to kill me boy!" Cedric taunted, if somewhat hoarsely.

The boy looked up at him with hate in his eyes, but held up his hands in surrender and began backing away.

There was a burst of light to their sides and Suddenly Sofia, Tilly, and Amina where in the circle with them.

"Cedric!"

Sofia ran to him, flinging her arms around him, as the other two women kept a watchful eye on Aleric.

Cedric caught her up holding her close. She ran her eyes and hands all over him, searching for anymore wounds even as her hand and arm were soaked in the blood that was running down from his shoulder.

"It's alright, I'm alright." He said, trying to calm her.

She was starting to tremble as her eyes came back to his.

"I'm alright." He said again, before pulling away slightly to heal the slice Aleric had taken out of him.

She nodded watching his skin mend, even as her eyes filled with tears, and when the spell was complete she was attacking him in her own way, throwing her body weight full against him, pushing him back against the large stone alter. Herr arms snaked around his neck again, and her lips smashed onto his own.

Cedric gave himself to her kiss ecstatically, letting her clutch at him, letting her tongue invade his mouth, feeling the adrenaline that had been coursing through him morph into a triumphant exuberance he'd never felt before.

"No, no, no!"

They turned to see Aleric sitting on the ground, tears in his eyes, as his shirt bloomed with blood from the hole Cedric had made in his side.

Something soft passed across Sofia's face and she detached from Cedric, taking his wand and walking over to the Prince.

Saying the words of the healing spell again, she touched the glowing tip to his side. The prince winced as the magic met the wound, but Cedric knew Sofia had healed him completely.

"Sofia, you can't. I love you. I want to make you Queen! How can you choose him over me?" Aleric was grasping her hand, pulling her down to her knees, his eyes pleading, his face beseeching.

Cedric couldn't see Sofia's face, but he did see her free hand come up to lightly caress the Prince's cheek.

"I'm so sorry. I never meant to hurt you or to drive you to something I know isn't like you. But I love Cedric. Titles, wealth, nothing means anything to me without him. Everything he said is true. He and I are one soul. Nothing can part us, or turn me from him."

The Prince looked at her with tears in his eyes, but it seemed his brush with death had taken the rage out of him. He nodded, a lost look coming over his face.

Sofia stood then, turning and walking back into Cedric's arms.

Graylock and Wu-chang chose that moment to appear out of the woods, coming to stand by the others against one of the stone markers.

When they pulled apart again, Cedric watched Sofia take in their surroundings.

"What is this?" She asked to no one in particular.

"This is the sacred circle, the oldest place in existence. The place where magic entered the world a thousand millennia ago." It was Amina who said it, wonder in her voice.

Now he wasn't attempting to keep from being killed, Cedric felt it, the aura of the place, the divinity of it. Turning a circle he could see it was the one place for miles where the sun touched the earth, even though it was undoubtedly daytime by now. And the stone markers and the alter gleamed with an otherworldly light.

"Sanguinis existent."

Cedric looked back at Sofia to see her touching his wand to her palm.

The wand lit and suddenly blood was running from the open wound.

Sofia looked up with fierce, determined eyes as she held out her bleeding hand to him.

"I'm ready now."


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: Just wanting to thank everyone who's following this story and especially everyone who's taken the time to review! Thank you, thank you.**

.o~O*O~o.

 **Sofia**

.o~O*O~o.

Cedric looked at her bleeding hand with wide eyes, but the rejection she feared seeing wasn't there. Instead a smile broke over his face like the sun through the trees.

Holding out his hand, he asked her wordlessly for his wand. She handed it back to him eagerly and once he had it he spoke the same spell opening his own hand and reaching out to her.

They moved closer to each other.

"I love you." Sofia breathed, happiness like she'd never known filling her.

Cedric nodded, looking too overcome to make a response.

Their hands were centimeters from each other, when thunder cracked loud and terrifying and a single bolt of lightning split the sky, striking the ground right between their bodies.

Sofia felt herself flying back from the impact of the strike and watched as Cedric was flung in the opposite direction.

"NO!"

Sofia hit the ground hard, pain bolting through the arm she landed on. Panting, she looked up to see O'dessa standing on the alter, Arne by her side at its foot, more of Eldrid's soldiers surrounding the stone circle, and beyond them the dark eyes of the spelled wolf creatures.

They were completely surrounded and utterly outnumbered.

"Kill her!" The Queen commanded, her face a demonic mask as she pointed to Sofia. "But bring me the Sorcerer unharmed!"

Sofia saw the soldiers rush in on Tilly, Graylock, and the other two sorcerers as Arne stalked up to her slowly, completely at ease, as though they weren't in a battle at all.

"I've been looking forward to this moment for almost a decade. Rise lady of light and meet your doom!"

"Arne, no! Why would want to kill Sofia? Why would you want to kill the woman I love?" It was Aleric who spoke, rising from the ground and coming to stand beside her, sword in hand."

"Aleric, this isn't your battle." Sofia yelled, even as she refused to let her eyes leave the advancing sorcerer. "I can't ask you to fight your own brother."

"I love you Sofia. That makes it my fight. Whether you'll have me or not, that makes it my fight." With those words he handed her his own wand and lifted his sword preparing for an attack.

Arne laughed at that.

"Awww, how charmingly noble. It's true Princess. He loves you, pathetically. I've made sure of that. Showing you to him, whispering how perfect you are, how he could never ask for a worthier Queen. He's to pitifully good to question the motives of others. He thinks everyone he loves means as well as he does."

With that Arne sent out a burst of light from his wand and flung Aleric from the circle as though he were tossing a stone.

"But you were right this isn't his battle."

Arne flicked his wand hard again and sent another bolt out.

Sofia raised Aleric's wand and caught it flinging it back at him.

Arne dodged it easily, sneering at her, before changing tactics. Pointing his wand at the ground he caused the earth in front of her to crack, making the ground shake, and the stone pillar nearest her begin to fall.

Sofia crouched trying to protect herself as she pointed her wand and spoke the spell that would float the giant stone away from her. She'd meant to fling it wide of the circle but it was to heavy. Huffing with the effort of holding it up, Sofia began to panic.

She couldn't drop the stone in the circle or people would die, and she was now sure she couldn't fling it. She was paralyzed, disabled, holding the rock above their heads with dwindling strength, her only choices to let it drop on herself or try to fling it and potentially kill others.

Arne sneered and laughed at her in disdain, letting her sweat it out for interminable moments, allowing her to understand how she was trapped. Toying with her like a cat with a mouse, before striking the final blow.

Sofia felt tears coming to her eyes.

She already knew she wouldn't fling the rock, and they were so outnumbered everyone was fighting for their lives, there was no one to help her. Which meant these were her last moments.

With everything she was she closed her eyes and thought of Cedric.

She'd seen him, across the circle, fighting. Everyone at home thought he was such a bumbling coward. But he was fighting like a warrior. It made her heart soar.

She loved him so much and he finally accepted their love and loved her in return. They had been moments from joining, becoming one soul, from finishing the story and beginning a life of untold bliss. And now she would have to leave him.

She felt her heart begin to break.

She wanted to scream and cry and rage but she couldn't give a moment's energy or strength to anything but holding up the rock.

It started almost imperceptibly.

A tingling feeling, only a tiny drop in a vast emptiness, but soon it was filling her, making her whole body vibrate with alien emotions, foreign power.

Then the thought came to her unbidden.

She wanted them to die.

Arne, O'dessa, the soldiers no matter how innocent, no matter how misled by their queen. She wanted them all to die. They were trying to hurt her, to hurt her friends, her love and she wanted to be the one to kill them!

The fact such an idea was completely anathema to all she believed in, to every feeling and principle which guided her life seemed to make no difference.

So Sofia rose, holding the thing above her head for a fleeting second before sending it crashing down on a hoard of Eldrid's men who were surrounding her Aunt.

Arne was shocked enough by her move to let it register on his face, and Sofia saw something like real fear cross his features.

Instead of shocking her out of her state, she felt his fear feeding what she was beginning to realize was a lust for blood.

Sofia's whole body felt as though it were on fire, hot and aching, wanting something she wasn't sure she understood, but the idea of hurting something seemed to soothe it slightly so she sunk into the dark impulse, allowing her whole body to light with the malevolent fire.

Suddenly her hands began to glow.

Smiling at Arne chillingly, she threw her wand to the ground and let a bolt of light shoot directly out of her hand.

He lifted his wand trying to deflect her attack, but though he spoke the spell in time, it was useless and her light hit with startling force, sending him into the alter hard enough to crack the stone.

The other sorcerer slumped to the ground perhaps dead, perhaps unconscious, Sofia didn't know or care.

She began shooting bolts out of her hands, watching as Eldrid's soldiers dropped at her feet.

It was intoxicating, the power to decide who lived or died.

But before Sofia could lose herself in it completely she heard a laugh of pure unadulterated evil.

Turning she saw Cedric, unconscious, in O'dessa's embrace.

The Queen threw her one malevolent sneer of triumph before disappearing in a puff of red smoke that took her son and what remained of her soldiers.

"CEDRIC!"

Suddenly whatever had possessed Sofia left her in a rush, as though all the air had been sucked out of her lungs, and she collapsed to the ground clutching her chest and gasping.

Tilly ran up to her as she sunk to her knees.

"Cedric," Sofia's voice was a choked whisper.

"Sofia are you alright?" Her Aunt was kneeling in front of her now, brushing back her wild hair in a comforting, motherly way and trying to make sure she was unharmed, but Sofia couldn't find the energy to care.

"She took Cedric!" Sofia's voice was a squeak as she grabbed at the lapels of Tilly's green jacket. "What happened? How did she get near him? I saw him before Arne made the rock collapse. Nothing should have touched him!"

Tilly was still looking her over as she spoke.

"I don't know dear. We were all fighting and suddenly he just collapsed. He…." Tilly's voice trailed off as she came to Sofia's left hand.

It was still covered in blood.

"Sofia is all this blood yours?" Her aunt's voice was strange.

Looking down she tried to focus on anything but the fear that was overwhelming her. That snake, she'd been after Cedric from the moment she laid eyes on him. What would she do with him? Sofia didn't think it was just about using his powers. She'd seen the way the Queen had looked at him. She wanted Cedric for herself.

"Sofia, I need you to focus!" Tilly's voice was raised now, as she grabbed Sofia's shoulders and shook her harshly.

"Ohh," Sofia cried out as she seemed to come back to reality.

"Sofia is it all your blood?" There was an urgency to the question now.

Sofia looked down at her hand. The cut she'd made was no longer bleeding but she had blood all over her hand and trails of it were drying down her arm.

"No," she finally answered. "Cedric's wound from fighting Aleric, I touched it when I first entered the circle. Before he healed it. Why?"

"But Cedric, he didn't have any of your blood?"

Sofia shook her head, feeling that hopeless rage again when she thought about how close they'd been to joining.

"That would explain why he collapsed." It was Graylock who spoke as he came up to them, helping to pull Sofia back to her feet.

"What do you mean?" She asked starting to feel angry. "All of you stop talking above my head and tell me what's going on?"

"You read the spell, Sofia. You understand the process to achieve a soul joining." Graylock prompted, a look like sympathy on his face.

Sofia only nodded.

"You had his blood on your hand when you cut your own. It's not enough to fully join the two of you if he didn't also have any of your blood, but it's enough for the blood on your hand to mix and enter you." Graylock motioned to the carnage around them. "You're little killing spree, Sofia, you were siphoning Cedric's powers. You took his strength, but since he'd had none of your blood he couldn't draw anything from you. That's why he collapsed."

Sofia flinched back as though struck, shaking her head even as a cry left her mouth.

"I…I…I didn't know. I didn't do it on purpose. It just came over me!"

Tilly rose then and gave Graylock a hard look.

"She didn't siphon Cedric's strength. She had no idea what even that small amount of their joint blood was capable of. He saw Arne going after her and he gave it to her."

"NOO!" Sofia doubled over then, the pain feeling as though it would overwhelm her.

Cedric had sacrificed himself for her. Damn him! How could he?

("I love you so much I wake in the night shaking with dread that something might have happened to you while I slept, because how can I live if you don't?")

Cedric's words drifted back to her, the one's he'd said in his workshop when he'd confessed how deeply he loved her. It hadn't even been two weeks since then! And now he might have given his life to save hers.

But it wasn't any different for her, how would she live if he died?

"We have to find him! I have to find him! I have to get him back!"

"O'dessa's options are limited." Amina walked up to them now, an injured Aleric with his arm slung over her shoulders. "She could kill him. But I'd wager money she'd rather keep him and kill you Sofia. With you out of the way she could use Cedric's grief to turn him."

"She be better off killing him." Graylock threw in, just in case Sofia wasn't already losing her mind.

"She might be better off, but something tells me she isn't one for making calm, well thought out decisions." Amina countered.

"In which case she'll be trying to lure Sofia into a trap." Graylock acceded.

"At least that will make her easy to find." Tilly added.

"She'll go back to the castle." Sofia whispered.

"We're going to need more than the five of us." Graylock said to no one in particular.

"We need to go after him now! Couldn't I do what I just did again?" Sofia shivered looking at the bodies of the men she'd killed.

The men she'd enjoyed killing.

She suddenly felt sick to her stomach, revolted by the realization of what she'd done.

She'd never killed anything. Never harmed a soul. She didn't even eat meat anymore because, after years of wearing the amulet, the thought of consuming the body of someone she could have a conversation with revolted her. And here she'd slaughtered a hundred men, cut them down without so much as thought.

How could she ever atone for something so horrible? How could she even be entertaining the thought of using such means again?

Yet, if this power could save Cedric, Sofia knew she'd do it. She'd do it a thousand times. It petrified her to understand she'd rip the very fabric of the world in two if it meant holding him alive in her arms again. Was this what he meant when he said loving him would stain her, destroy her?

Tilly and Graylock looked at each other before the older sorcerer shook his head.

"It's not safe to do something like that until you're fully joined. Cedric collapsed because he gave you a great deal of his energy. If you were to pull that much again for too long or pull too much from him without realizing it, you could kill him."

"Sofia, dear, where's your amulet?" Her aunt suddenly asked.

Sofia's hands went up to her neck, and felt nothing but skin.

"Oh, I put it back in the jewel room on my birthday. I thought it was time to let it go, until the next princess who should wear it comes along." She remembered, foggily, how awful her birthday had been. She'd been so distraught by Cedric's rejection she'd pleaded illness and her family had agreed to put off the picnic they'd planned for her until she was better. They'd never gotten around to it.

She thought she'd never, ever feel happiness again that day. Now she would trade all the misery her heart could muster to just have Cedric safe and a tower away, even if he never touched her again.

"Oh dear." Her aunt said.

"Do you think it would help?" Sofia asked, focusing back on her aunt.

Cedric had always gone on and on, during her childhood, about the amulet's unparalleled powers. Even though she'd been given great gifts by it and a few rather unpleasant curses, she'd never understood how the jewel could be harnessed for a specific purpose. Her amulet seemed to have a rather set mind on things, and she didn't see it being very open to persuasion.

"Most definitely!" Graylock, Amina, and Wu-Chang all seemed to answer her at once and their combined voices bounced off the stone pillars, echoing several times.

Tilly stood, offering her hand to Sofia.

"I think we need to pay a visit to Enchancia and then call in the cavalry!"


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: I don't usually post on a Sunday but I'm moving this week so I wanted to get a jump start. If, by chance, you've checked out the first chapter of my new story 'Free' I'll have two more out this week too, before the craziness descends. I'm hoping to keep writing while on our way to our new home so with the magic of hotel Wi-Fi I thinking I'll probably be posting next week as well, but we'll see how it goes. I wanted to get this out though since I had it! And once we're in our new place I'll be getting back to writing/posting as usual (or as usual as I usually am).**

 **Also you'll recognize one of our characters this chapter from the Villain's Guide (if you're reading that too). When I get an idea it goes in so many directions. It was fun including this character in a more lighthearted way, but it's all about the evil this time!**

.o~O*O~o.

 **Cedric**

.o~O*O~o.

Someone was watching him.

With his eyes closed he couldn't be sure who, but the person's presence made his spine tingle and the hairs on his arms raise.

"Cedric," the voice was sweetly seductive, urging him to break the last bonds of unconsciousness and swim back up to reality.

But he fought it. He had no idea if his desperate gamble had worked. Had Sofia been able to use his strength? Had she been able to fight off Arne, or was he about to open his eyes to a world where she no longer existed?

The thought brought unimaginable pain with it and he let out a sob.

Suddenly there was a warmth on his chest and a feeling of restoration, as though the energy he'd given Sofia was somehow coming back to him.

"Cedric, open your eyes?" It was O'dessa.

Knowing he could put off the truth no longer he obeyed.

He was lying on an enormous bed, strewn with silks and furs. The dirty, bloodstained clothes he'd worn had been removed and he was covered only by a thick, velvet coverlet. The room around him was vast, paneled in dark wood, with the symbols of Eldrid- the giant oak with the face of a man carved into it, the runes for war and magic, and a mythical antlered deer- carved on the walls and weaved into large tapestries hung all around. Incense burned from braziers hung from the ceiling and the Queen stood before him at the foot of the bed.

She was smiling down on him as a wolf would an injured deer before sinking its teeth in.

"Do you feel better my sorcerer?" She asked, her tone conversational, as the fingers of one hand played with a strand of her long blond hair.

She was dressed all in red silk. But instead of the traditional garb of Eldrid's noblewomen she wore a sorcerer's robe, the center slit open nearly to her navel, displaying a wealth of creamy pale cleavage, and gaping again to reveal most of her thighs. She retained her gold circlet though, this one studded with large rubies, and holding a long red veil to the back of her head.

"I'm not _your_ sorcerer. Nor will I ever be." He bit back, scowling as he struggled to get up.

"Don't bother," she smiled, pointing to the ropes which bound his hands to the bed. "They're enchanted. I can't have you slipping back off to little miss princess sunshine and completing your bond. Not when I have…other plans for you."

Cedric let out a silent breath. Sofia was alive!

"Why are you doing this?" He asked.

O'dessa looked at him as though she weren't sure if he was patronizing her. But she must have seen something in his demeanor that convinced her his question was genuine.

"You still don't believe do you, not really?" She ran her hands over the red gossamer curtains that hung from the bed as she moved from the foot to his side.

The bed dipped and she was beside him, leaning over so her top half covered his on the bed. Her breasts nearly spilling out as her hands began stroking his bare shoulders and arms.

Cedric tried to move away but of course it was pointless. He was secured to the bed tightly, the only result of his actions, the abrasion of his wrists by the rough ropes which bound him.

"I'm beginning to realize everyone else does." He answered dryly, trying to control the revulsion her touch caused.

She smiled at him almost pityingly.

"Do you really want to be free of me so desperately Cedric? The dream I gave you was no lie. Just think how much more fulfilling it would be to spend your life with a woman like me. Someone who can understand all the malignant, pernicious emotions that rule your mind. Someone who would gladly sate the more depraved desires you hide so well from that innocent little girl of yours.

She's young and she's beautiful, I'll grant you that. But she's so filled with… goodness." O'dessa spit the last word as though it were rotten. "How long do you think her stainless charms and virtuous ardor can hold your attention before you're so bored you can't see straight?"

He had no desire to bare his soul to this woman about anything, most especially not about Sofia and his love for her. It was clear she wouldn't have the capacity to understand how the things she mocked about his princess were the very things he craved as though they were air and water.

"You're a viper. I felt it the first moment you touched me."

O'dessa made a hurt little pout, but then burst into peals of laughter.

"Actually I haven't ever been a snake. I've been lots of other things though. Would you like to see one of my very favorites?"

She began to rise, but not before leaning over and brushing her lips against his, eyeing him as though she meant to soon do very much more.

When she was fully standing, she reached into the drawer of the little table by the bedside, pulling out a small vial.

Cedric watched as she strode to the window, throwing it open and pouring the vial's contents into a jeweled chalice on the sill. She swirled the emerald colored liquid in the cup a few times and then thrust it through the open casement.

As if on cue, a burst a lightening broke the sky and the tip of it struck directly into the cup.

She walked back to him, the cup still in her hand, its contents now smoking and giving off the repulsive, feted stench of black magic.

She was standing at the foot of the bed again, when she raised the cup in silent salute, smirking at him playfully before knocking back the concoction in a single swallow.

Thunder broke again outside, the day seeming to turn into night without regard for the sun's progress across the sky. A heavy rain began to sluice down, bringing with it a cold wind, which slithered violently into the room, sending things falling to the ground and flying about, until it centered on O'dessa.

Through the billowing curtains of the bed he watched her dress begin to swirl around her as she gripped the empty cup with both hands. Her hair began to turn color, whipping around her while the pale gold seemed to bleed out to be replaced by a black so dark it was nearly the color of polished jet. Her eyes, still focused on him with a terrifying intensity, morphed from the odd blue which he'd always thought unnatural to an even more alien greenish gold.

There was a final crack of thunder and single large bolt of lightning outside and then the strange storm ceased as quickly as it had come, and before him stood a figure dressed in black and purple, her hair covered by a tight cowl and a crown of finely beaten, unadorned gold sitting atop her head.

"Queen Ravena," he whispered, feeling his heartbeat beginning to quicken in true fear. "I thought your bones were littering the bottom of a ravine."

"So does all the world. Yet here I am."

"How?"

She smiled at him as though he were adorably naïve, and Cedric began to feel like he'd only been playing at evil all these years, never realizing it until he stood before the real thing.

"I'm no mortal, Cedric. Neither really are you. The only thing that can truly end my existence, and that of my sisters, is your rejoining.

They want to kill you. They were never very enamored of my choice to place you and Sofia so close together. At one point I agreed with them. But I've been watching you a very long time, my handsome, dark one, and I've come to believe ending you would be a most tragic waste. It's your 'literal' better half who needs to die.

"And you've been hiding here in Eldrid all this time, planning it?"

The Evil Queen shrugged her shoulders.

"Not _all_ this time. There was a real Lady O'dessa once. The poor girl, she threw herself from topmost tower of her husband's keep when she found out Ivar had killed him. She was desperately in love with him you know. And he with her. Much like you and Sofia.

It took a great deal of magic to control Thane Bjorn for long enough to raise a rebellion. He was quite the strong minded one, and so desperately noble.

Amusing isn't it? Arne is really their son. But his soul, as it turns out, is as black as mine. While my own son, despite his little outburst in the woods this morning, is good and kind down to his core. I suppose parents must come to peace with the fact we can't make our children what we'd like.

Aleric has served his purpose though, at least in part. He brought Sofia here after all. If only you hadn't come with her, I would have been free of her and the threat of your joining by now. And then I could have come for you in my own time.

Oh well, one must be agile enough to work on one's feet. Now, you stay put. I must be off. Your little stunt nearly cost Arne his life and despite the fact he isn't mine, I am rather fond of him, so I must make sure my sisters are tending him properly."

With that she swept out of the room, stopping at the door only long enough to look back at him and blow a kiss.

.o~O*O~o.

 **Sofia**

.o~O*O~o.

Between four sorcerers it was no problem to teleport from…wherever they'd been directly to Enchancia. So it was only a matter of moments before Sofia rematerialized on the steps of the castle with Aleric, Wu-Chang, Graylock, Amina, and Tilly behind her.

"Ohh boy, that just never gets any better does it?" Tilly said, grabbing her stomach as she bent over a bit unsteadily.

Aleric was kind enough to step beside her and rub between her shoulders soothingly, and as Tilly was lifting back to her full height the royal coach entered the courtyard with Sofia's parents inside.

"Sofia?" Her mother called, giving voice to the shocked look on both of their faces.

"Hi mom, hi dad," she replied, waving somewhat sheepishly as a giant lump formed in her throat. How was she ever going to explain any of this to them?

The coach hadn't even made a full stop when Rolland opened the door and jumped out, bounding up the steps.

"What are you all doing here…together? And dear gods what's happened to you?" He asked gravely, taking in the state of them.

Sofia couldn't help but admit they were a rag tag band if ever there was one. All of them were covered in dirt. Tilly's umbrella was little more than a metal frame with torn scraps of fabric clinging here and there. And of course she was caked in drying blood from her upper arm all the way down to the mostly healed wound on her hand.

"Graylock do you know the way to Cedric's workshop?" Tilly asked, all of the sudden.

"Hmmm, now let me think," the jokester intoned, stroking his chin in mock puzzlement and taking a sweeping gaze of the castle grounds. "Top of that atrociously gloomy looking tower right there, yes?"

Sofia nodded.

"Ah, well I guess I should be glad subtlety was never one of Redbrick's strong points." Graylock continued chuckling to himself.

"Why don't you head up there and begin calling our friends." Tilly said, while tilting her head in the direction of the tower. "And Sofia dear, why don't you get your amulet, and bring the book back out with you too. We'll get your parents caught up on everything that's happened."

Sofia gave her aunt a grateful nod before fleeing up the steps and heading in the direction of the jewel room. She'd never thought of herself as a coward before, yet Sofia had no idea where she would even begin if she had to be the one to tell her parents everything that had happened in the last three days. Especially because just thinking about Cedric trapped back in Eldrid with that…that… _beast_ woman made her heart race with a sick dread that seemed to steal her ability to think rationally.

Despite her shocking appearance the guards only bowed to her as she made her way through the vaults of the castle. When she finally reached the jewel room all three of the Griffins flew down to greet her, squawking excitedly and rubbing their feathered bodies against her sides as she bent to pet them.

"I'm sorry I can't understand you guys right at the moment, but I'm really glad to see you all!" Jasper jumped up at that and gave her the Griffin equivalent of a kiss, nuzzling his soft cheek against hers. "Actually I'm here to get the amulet. It's kind of an emergency so I can't stay long, but I promise when I get back I'll bring you guys something sparkly!"

All three Griffins seemed to nod their heads and allowed her to pass to the very back of the room where the amulet sat quietly on its stand. Stroking a finger down the length of the jewel, Sofia wondered how on earth she was ever going to manipulate its enormous power to save Cedric.

But as she stared at it Sofia began to wonder. The jewel had shown her the book after all. And over the years it had done a great many other things that would suggest it had a kind of sentience. Perhaps she didn't have to find a way to magically coerce it. Maybe she just needed to ask it for its help.

"I'm sorry I put you away." She began, feeling somewhat ridiculous talking to necklace. "I thought it was time for me to grow up and that you should wait here for your next princess. But I know you know I'm the princess from the book and so you have to know Cedric is the dark sorcerer too…." Sofia hoped for some sort of sign from the jewel, but it remained unchanging on its perch. Sighing a little in frustration she continued. "Cedric's been taken. If I don't get him back the book will never be finished, our soul can't rejoin, and the whole world may be in trouble. Will you help me get him back? Please, you know I have to get him back. I _need_ him. Please!"

Suddenly the jewel room filled with pure, purple light. Sofia heard the Griffins cawing behind her. And when she looked down the Amulet was no longer on its stand in front of her, but back around her neck, resting comfortably between her clavicles.

Sofia clasped the amulet between her hands as she used to when she was a little girl.

"Thank you," she whispered, a single tear dropping from her eye onto the now bright jewel.

"It really likes you."

Sofia turned around to see Jasper behind her and realized she'd heard him.

"I think so." She answered the creature softly.

"Don't worry Princess Sofia, the amulet chose you again. It will help you." It was Jasper's mother Opal who spoke now.

"Good luck princess. We'll see you when you get back," Jasper's father said as the three Griffins flew back to their perches.

"I'll see you soon," Sofia said, waving at them as she wiped her eyes of the wetness there.

Rushing out of the vaults Sofia thanked the guards for their help and ran to her room to retrieve the book. Picking it up, from where she'd left it atop her dressing table, she rushed back to the castle steps.

She wasn't even through the doors when she heard the yelling. Coming out into the light Sofia saw Tilly and Rolland standing toe to toe, both their faces an identical shade of angry red, as they shouted at each other. Behind Tilly stood Wu-chang, Amina, and Aleric, and still hanging back by the coach was her mother, a look of complete disbelief on her face.

Suddenly there was silence and Sofia turned to see her father's gaze fixed on her, his eyes boring heated holes in her head.

"Is this true Sofia?" Rolland asked, pushing past Tilly roughly to begin ascending the castle steps, practically stalking towards her. "Have you thrown Prince Aleric off, gone back on your word to me, gone back on _MY_ word to King Ivar, made me a mockery of me and Enchancia for _Cedric_?"

"Rollie!" Queen Miranda seemed to suddenly come out of whatever paralysis had been holding her during her husband's argument with his sister, but the king silenced her with an angry wave of her hand.

"Miranda be quiet! This isn't a subject on which I want your council!"

Sofia had never heard her father talk to her mother like that. He was always so kind and gentle, to everyone really, but especially to Miranda. By the look of astonished hurt on her mother's face she knew her mother had never dreamed her husband could treat her like that either.

Suddenly Sofia felt a bud of fear blossom deep inside her. She was used to dealing with irascible people, lords knew she seemed to gravitate to them. Cedric had almost always been angry and rude in her first years in the castle, and she'd never found herself frightened or put off by it. But this was something altogether different. What was coming off her father now was a kind of black rage she'd never seen before or thought him capable of.

"Daddy I'm sorry, I…I never meant to hurt or embarrass you. I just…I love him! I always have." Sofia finally got out.

"I don't accept that," her father all but screamed at her as he came to stand on the step just below hers, putting his face inches from her own. "I don't accept that! You're either confused or you've been put under a spell. There's simply no way you could ever do this to me, to _yourself_ , if you were in your right mind."

Sofia felt a sudden desperate determination rise up inside her, all but shoving away the fear she'd been feeling only moments before. She knew her father had never had much love for Cedric, but Tilly must have told him by now what she and Cedric were, and that he was being held a prisoner, his life hanging in the very balance as they stood here arguing. She needed her father to understand and to help her.

"I'm not spelled or insane. I love Cedric. He's my other half." Rolland seemed utterly unmoved by the conviction in Sofia's voice and so she held out the book to him. "Please dad if you don't believe what Tilly's told you, just read this, it explains everything!"

Rolland's face seemed to turn an unnatural shade of purple as his hand came out smacking the book from her grasp.

Sofia yelped as the old tome flew out of her hand and landed on the step beside her with a dusty thud.

"I will not entertain anymore of this nonsense Sofia. If you're in your right mind than prove it. Stop this ridiculousness, go back to Eldrid, and marry Aleric. If you do that I'll smooth things over with Ivar and make sure Cedric is brought back unharmed."

Sofia stared at her father shocked.

"Dad, he's not being held by Ivar, he's being held by Queen O'dessa. She's evil dad. She's evil and she wants to kill me and keep Cedric so she can control his powers!"

Rolland outright laughed at her now.

"Cedric's powers?" He scoffed. "Let her. In fact, I dare her! A few bunnies bounced to hard or banquets floated away on the wind and she'll be sending him back to me in a fortnight. I have half a mind to write and tell her no backsies."

"Dad…," Sofia had barely gotten out her father's name when he was in her face again.

"You promised me you were serious this time Sofia. That you were really going to marry Prince Aleric. I've let you turn down other princes and even other kings, but I will not let you ruin your life, nor will I let Enchancia be a laughing stock when the other kingdoms find out _my_ daughter gave up being Queen of Eldrid to elope with the carnival magician I've been calling a royal sorcerer all these years. I will speak with the King and Queen and make sure Cedric is returned to Enchancia safely but only if you marry Aleric!"

Sofia's face turned hard then. He wasn't listening to her. He didn't want to believe her, even about O'dessa trying to harm her. Well she'd make him!

"I can't do that dad, even if Aleric were to take me back." She said firmly.

"And why is that?"

"Because if I married Aleric today I couldn't guarantee any child I had would be his."

Sofia never saw the hand that lashed out to land hard across her face. All she knew was one moment she was looking the King in the eye and the next she was sprawled across the castle steps her cheek hot and throbbing.

Sofia felt soft hands grabbing her and then she was being held by her mother and her aunt as they all looked up at her father horrified. The king himself seemed to be staring at his hand, his own expression teetering between shock and remorse. It didn't stop Wu-Chang, Amina, and Aleric all from surrounding him though, the sorcerers having taken out their wands to prevent her father from anymore violence.

At that moment Graylock came around the corner with a group of people trailing behind him.

"I think I may safely say the gangs almost all here now!" He chuckled, until he actually took in the scene in front of him and the sound died in his throat.

Sofia heard the awed intake of breath from her mother and father as they saw the people who now accompanied Rudistan's jester sorcerer. Cedric's parents, Goodwin and Winifred were beside him. Her teachers from royal prep Ms. Flora, Ms. Fauna, and Ms. Merriweather flew just behind, and in back of all of them was a figure Sofia hadn't seen in many, many years: Merlin!

"What do you mean almost all?" Her mother asked, as Tilly began to help Sofia to her feet.

Before anyone could answer the amulet of Avalor began to glow a bright, brilliant purple once more and suddenly there were three new figures standing with the group at the bottom of the steps: Queen Elsa of Arrendelle, Prince Eugene of Corona, and Mulan in her famous armor.

"That would be all of us!" Graylock said, adjusting his monocle.

"Why are you all here?" Her father asked, his voice having regained some of its proud regalness.

"We are here to help the Lady of light rejoin with the other half of her soul my good man." It was Merlin who spook as he pulled off his glasses briefly and shined them with his beard. When he'd finished and replaced them he gave Sofia a deep bow.

"Have you really been looking after us all these years?" Sofia said, her voice awed.

"My dear girl," Graylock chuckled, "Merlin is the original hand of fate. He was alive when you and Cedric were still one being."

Sofia stared at the old man and felt a certain amount of astonishment. She knew he was old, his past steeped in legend and magic, but somehow she'd always thought at least some of that was merely mystique.

"I have called you both by many names over the centuries. You've been countless people who struggled to find each other but never met, or perished before accepting your purpose, or lost each other before we could find a way to rejoin you.

But I meant it when I said I wouldn't forget the name Cedric the Sensational. This time, this time we'll finally get it right!" Merlin practically beamed at her as he spoke and Sofia suddenly felt filled with truth he'd revealed, a realization of the lives they'd lived before, the chances missed, sometimes by bad luck, sometimes by his or her own stubbornness.

"I won't stop till I have him back!" Sofia said, her voice as certain as it had ever been.

"Then we, my lady, are at your service!" Merlin replied and the others all nodded in agreement.

"Dad, I have to go now." Sofia felt her cheek burn as she turned to her father one last time, but he seemed to stunned to make a reply.

"Sofia!" Her mother grabbed her arm then, pulling her into a tight embrace. "Be careful honey!"

Sofia hugged her back for everything she was worth, tears forming at the corners of her eyes.

"I will mom. I just have to get Cedric back."

Her mother pulled away then and lightly stroked her sore cheek.

"I know you do sweetheart. I know!" The two women embraced once more and then Sofia began to descend the steps to join the group at the bottom, Wu-chang, Amina, and Aleric behind her.

She had just reached them when she heard her father let out a startled burst of air. Turning back she saw Tilly had shoved the book hard into Rolland's mid-section.

"When you get your head out of your ass you might want to give this a look baby brother." The little woman spat, more venom in her voice than Sofia had ever heard before.

With that Tilly joined them and the magical among them raised their wands, engulfing the band in brilliant white light.


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: I'm sorry this was so long in coming. With the move and getting settled again, this chapter was just giving me the hardest time. I will try to be more regular in posting from now on!**

.o~O*O~o.

 **Cedric**

.o~O*O~o.

Cedric growled in frustration.

Some dark sorcerer demigod he'd turned out to be!

He'd been at it for hours and hadn't even managed to loosen the enchanted ropes binding him to the bed posts. He'd tried it the old fashioned way for a little while, just to see if Ravenna had been lying, but had gotten nothing for his efforts but two bloody wrists. Then he'd tried spells: "Be Gonigus", "Let Loosium", "Stoppeezy" etc., etc., etc., thinking if he really were a mythical being he _should_ be able to manipulate his magic without a wand! After all, he'd seen Sofia shooting bolts of pure energy out of her palms right before he collapsed.

Still nothing.

"Ohhh, Finnegan's fungus o _f course_ I could be the vengeful, malevolent half of a near deity and still manage to bungle it?"

"Poor thing, I forgot to mention I put a suppression spell on you before you woke. One can never be too careful."

Cedric looked up to see the Queen in the doorway. She had remained in her most recognizable form, but changed back into her scarlet sorcerer's robe, the red veil now hanging from her gold crown.

Long black hair snaked around her as she began stalking towards him. Cedric had to admit she was eerily flawless, but her beauty wasn't enticing. Instead he found it deeply unsettling. Not the least because her expression suggested she was done playing gently.

His mouth felt suddenly dry.

"Wh…What are you doing?" He stuttered out, as she reached up to remove her crown and veil.

She gave no answer, but showed two rows of perfect, pearl white teeth in a catlike grin of predatory anticipation.

Cedric flinched as her crown dropped onto the small bedside table, turning instinctively towards the sound to see her gossamer veil slither to the floor forgotten. Then she was on the bed with him, hand pushing down the covers to touch him as her lips slanted over his. He tried to speak, to tell her to get away, but it only gave her the opportunity to plunge her tongue inside his mouth. She must have anticipated he would try turn his head next, because her other hand was gripping his hair painfully, holding him in place before the thought was completely formed.

Cedric began to panic in earnest when he realized she was climbing on top of him.

If she were anyone else he would have felt confident she could try as she liked. He felt only revulsion at her assault and rage at the knowledge she thought she could arouse him by force. But with a sorceress of her power he knew he had cause to be afraid. There were any number of spells she could use to take away his free will, to compel his body to respond as she pleased. And he was confident when her initial attempt failed she would turn to one of them next. So he did the only thing he could think of:

He bit down on her tongue, HARD!"

Ravenna shrieked and reared back. The fingers that had been wrapping themselves around his limp member appeared at the corner of his vision just before landing across his cheek hard enough to make him see stars.

When his head lulled back onto the pillow, Cedric found her sitting on her heels next to him. Her movements had caused the tie of the robe to come undone, the red silk now hanging loose around her body.

His eyes journeyed reluctantly upwards to see her breasts, nipples tightening in the cool air of the room, as the right one began to drip a warm, red liquid onto his chest.

His eyes traveled farther to see the liquid was blood, pouring from her mouth where he'd bitten her. It was smeared all over her lips and chin and on her hands as she pushed her hair out of the way. Raising his eyes farther still he saw hellfire burning in her demonic green eyes. But when she saw him staring she smiled in return.

"Is that how you want it? Because fighting me will only make it sweeter. Your little love is coming, and when she arrives I want her to see her greatest nightmare come to life. Her dark sorcerer crying out beneath a better woman!"

The images her words evoked turned Cedric's stomach and he was certain if his stomach hadn't been empty he would have vomited all over them both!

"They _will_ be on their way soon! We don't have time for your little games right now Ravenna." A new voice in the room caused them both to turn.

"Merlin's mushrooms!" Cedric whispered.

The large mirror on the other side of the chamber shimmered briefly and he watched as a long forgotten form appeared in its surface: Morgana.

The enchantress nodded before stepping out of the glass.

"It's a wonderful trick isn't it? One I have you to thank for. I spent _years_ trapped in that mirror where you and Merlin imprisoned me before discovering, not just how to escape but, how travel between them. You thought you defeated me, but your little stunt only made me stronger." She sneered at him triumphantly.

"With every attempt to stamp us out we all grow stronger." Those words came from the fire place which flickered ominously before a horned creature in black materialized behind the flames. "And when we destroy your princess we'll finally be strong enough to come out of the shadows."

Cedric's words had run out as he watched her walk through the fire to stand next to Morgana at the foot of the bed.

Maleficent gave him a single, scornful snicker, before picking up the blanket Ravenna had pushed down and throwing it over his hips.

"At least there's one thing about you that isn't disappointing." She mocked.

" _If_ they're coming, than you both should be getting ready! Not interrupting me!" Ravenna spat, drawing her robe closed and tying it tightly.

"I have a better idea." Maleficent's voice echoed through the stone chamber chillingly. "Why don't you move aside and let me kill him now! Then it won't matter when they come or what they do when they get here!"

"I told you, I'm keeping him. When Sofia is dead and his true powers have been unleashed you'll be thanking me!"

The two creatures stared at each other and Cedric could swear he felt the temperature in the room plummet.

"Ravenna is right!" It was Morgana's voice that cut the air, and he watched as triumph bloomed over the Queen's bloodstained face. "But…," the enchantress continued, "only if we manage to kill Sofia. Which we cannot do as long as he can give her his power." The triumph drained from Ravenna's face and seemed to slither onto Maleficent's. "Give him the potion!"

Cedric began to tremble as the three of them fought over his fate.

"Arne still isn't sure if the antidote he created will work! I've put a suppression spell on him, that should more than keep him from helping the princess."

"We all three of us know the power of _true love_ ," Maleficent growled, "I won't take any more chances because you've suddenly gone into heat at the thought of fucking pure darkness! Give him the potion or I'll kill him right now!"

The horned demon was a blur of black and green and then her hands were around his throat, squeezing the air from Cedric's already battered throat.

"ALRIGHT!" The Queen shouted.

Maleficent loosened her grip. Smiling down at him, she spoke in soft tones.

"For your sake, I very much hope she's right about what will happen after Sofia's death. Because if not, it'll only take a few days of her games for you to wish I _had_ killed you."

When the evil fairy pulled away Ravenna took her place, holding a vial in her hand.

"What's that?" His voice came out horse, but the note of fright was still humiliatingly obvious.

"You know my story."

Cedric swallowed thickly. "Sleeping Death."

Ravenna nodded.

"Arne has been tinkering with a counter potion which I'll administer after your _other half_ ," she spit the words, "and your band of bumbling do-gooders are defeated. Then you will belong to me and your powers will help us bring the world to its knees!"

Cedric scoffed. Bravado wasn't normally something he felt, but his belief in his princess was unwavering.

"Sofia will stop you. And afterwards she'll easily figure out what you've done and wake me. Then we'll join and end the three of you for good!"

Morgana let out an answering snort. "So you've finally accepted you fate, eh? How tragic it comes too late. Sofia won't figure it out you're still alive because I have a little surprise planned that should take all the fight right out of her!"

Maleficent let out a cry of rage at the continued conversation. "Tick, tock, Ladies, tick, tock."

Ravenna looked at her 'sisters' with an angry grimace.

"Well! Hold him," she commanded.

Cedric knew it was useless to struggle, but he did anyway, making every drop they got down him a labor. Despite his efforts it was only a matter of minutes before the world began to get fuzzy at the edges.

He'd thought the poison would act quickly, taking his consciousness in just a few drops. But he was wrong. It was only his ability to move which melted away immediately. Then it was as if each of his other senses shut down one at a time while he struggled in vain against the impending darkness. And all the time there was a burning agony inside him, as though they were stabbing him in the ribs and stomach over and over.

The last thing he felt was Ravenna's lips brushing over his.

The last thing he heard was her whispering in his ear, promising Sofia's corpse would be lying beside him when he woke.

.o~O*O~o.

 **Sofia**

.o~O*O~o.

Sofia hadn't known where they were going next, but she managed a small smile when they materialized in the main hall of Dragon Hold. She remembered the day she and Cedric spent here with Merlin and the great adventure that had ensued.

Harrowing as his capture had been, the day had ended up even more special than she'd ever expected. And now, as Sofia looked back with the knowledge the book had given her, she realized why. It was the first adventure she and Cedric shared after he'd given up his schemes to take her amulet. The first time they'd both been fighting on the side of good.

"It will be alright child." Merlin's voice filled her ears as his ancient cragged hands came around her shoulders, pulling her into a grandfatherly embrace.

"We'll get him back." Sofia nodded, attempting to feel nothing but confidence.

"We've gotten him back once before, you and I." He reminded her with a warm smile. "So come let's put a plan together." He said the last loudly, looking around the room at all of his guests.

Everyone gathered round them as Merlin pulled out his wand. Waving it at the floor he spoke a spell Sofia wasn't familiar with, and a perfectly conjured, three dimensional image of Eldrid's ancient fortress rose from the floor.

"If Queen O'Dessa has returned to her Castle then I suggest we create a diversion." Graylock said, taking the reins. Eugene, you and Sofia will sneak into the castle and find Cedric while the rest of us make a frontal assault, distracting the Queen, and whoever else might be with her, until you have good Ol' Neck Crick out."

There was a growl from Sofia's right and both she and Graylock turned to see Cedric's mother staring daggers at him.

"Just a pun Madam, I assure you." Graylock laughed uncomfortably and loosened his tie as Mrs. Winifred continued giving him the evil eye.

"Let me go with Sofia and Prince Eugene." Aleric spoke now, thankfully taking everyone's attention away from Graylock. "I know the castle like the back of my hand. I can get you in easily." To demonstrate he pointed to a small courtyard that ran along the entrance to the woods. "Two of the stones on the outer wall, here, are loose. I used to move them to sneak out on market day and pilfer tarts from my favorite stand. And the lock on this door is practically prehistoric, it should break easily."

Sofia looked at him and felt her eyebrow creep up her forehead in a way she knew Cedric would be proud of.

"I'm grateful you tried to protect me from your brother this morning. But Aleric are you really suggesting your willing to fight your own family to help us? To help me? I can't believe that. You love them."

Aleric gave her a look that made her deeply uncomfortable, and not a little bit guilty. For a moment she thought he was going to declare he loved her best. But instead he raised his head proudly.

"I do love them. But what my mother is doing is wrong. What Arne tried to do to you is wrong. My father raised me to believe a Prince should never stand idly by while others do wrong, no matter who it is."

His sincerity was irrefutable, as was his knowledge of his home. A thing she had seen firsthand when he'd taken her on a tour of the castle.

Sofia took in a startled breath when she realized they'd done that only yesterday morning. How could it feel as though a lifetime had passed since then?

"Thank you." She said, her voice barely more than a whisper.

"Alright friends, we should be on our way!" Merlin said, clapping his hands together loudly.

They were all gathering to move magically when Sofia cried out, doubling over in pain and wrapping her arms around her abdomen.

"Sofia!" Tilly and Winifred were at her side in a moment, helping her to the floor and looking over her anxiously.

"Princess Sofia dear, tell us what's wrong." Cedric's mother pushed back her hair, holding it away so she could feel the air on her face and neck.

"It hurts!" Sofia managed to squeak out as she clutched at her sides.

Before anyone could ask more an echoing laughter filled the expanse of the tower. It sent a chill down Sofia's spine.

She was sure she had heard that laugh before, but couldn't place it.

Someone else could though.

"Morgana!" Merlin hissed, his wand back in his hand before he was even finished speaking her name. The other sorcerers followed suit but nothing happened.

Then Sofia saw her. She was only a reflection in a large mirror.

Sofia had no idea if this one was spelled like the one they'd used to defeat Morgana the last time, but the evil sorceress didn't seem to want leave it. Instead she merely knocked on its surface, garnering the attention of the whole group.

"Hello Merlin, surprised to see me?"

"I only wish I were. I should have known you'd be involved in all this somehow!"

The beautiful woman gave him a sinister smirk.

"Always one step behind." She clucked shaking her head. "I'm not here to trade banalities with you in any case. Princess Sofia, little princess where are you?" She sung tauntingly.

Sofia expected to have to struggle to her feet, anticipating more pain. But as suddenly as it had come it was gone and she rose easily.

"Where is Cedric?" She asked, not caring if the woman laughed at her.

"I thought you'd never ask. Why, he's here with me and a few of my 'friends'." She answered. "Would you like to see him?"

Instead of waiting for an answer, Morgana moved out of the mirrors surface and Sofia screamed as she saw what was behind her.

Cedric lay on a stone slab, two huge black morning candles burning on either side of his head. He was dressed in his familiar purple robes and yellow bowtie, his wand clasped in lifeless hands crossed over his chest.

"The Queen wanted to keep him, but she's been…overruled." Morgana paused for effect before smiling silkily. "IT'S OVER," she shouted as Sofia began to tremble uncontrollably. "But by all means if you'd like to collect what's left of your _dark sorcerer_ , be my guest. We'll be waiting."

Then she was gone and leaving the image of Cedric's body to linger a while longer before fading away.

For an endless, silent moment Sofia simply stared at her reflection.

She barely recognized herself. Her hair was a tangled nest of knotted curls, her cheek bore an ugly purple mark the size and shape of her father's palm, her simple, blue woolen dress was torn and bloody. She might as well have been a mad woman.

Maybe she was.

Maybe this was all a deranged delusion and she'd wake in her bed any moment now, still just Princess Sofia, about to turn twenty, in love with magic and flying horses and books without endings. And Cedric would still be her best friend, crankily inhabiting his tower, waiting for her to arrive for the day's potion brewing and spell casting, completely oblivious to her secret longings for him.

But then she clenched her hands and the one she'd cut stung enough to make her gasp.

Suddenly she was screaming Cedric's name, banging on the mirror until the glass beneath her fists began to crack.

Hands grabbed at her but she fought against them.

"CEDRIC!"

He couldn't hear her.

He would never hear her again.

He would never hold her again, never kiss her again, never tell her he loved her again.

Sofia crumpled, letting the hands she'd fought pull her from the mirror. When they realized she wouldn't fight they let her go and she slithered to the floor. Laying her face against the ancient stones, she let the coldness soothe the soreness in her cheek as she tucked her legs into her stomach and wrapped her arms around them.

That's what she'd felt when her stomach had seized. She'd felt them killing him.

She'd been so sure O'Dessa would keep him alive. She'd never imagined there were others more powerful involved. How could she have been so naïve? How could she have been so careless with his life?

"Cedric," she whispered his name now, hopeless in a way she hadn't felt since she was a small child learning her father was never coming home. The feeling was miserably familiar even though she'd only felt it once before. A deep ache settling into her chest, making it hurt, as her heart called for him knowing he could never again answer.

"Cedric."


End file.
